Reach but never Catch
by Hoorg
Summary: Jet the Hawk learns the hard way that riding his extreme gear isn't the only thing in life — sometimes there's hedgehogs as well. In which a 20 years old former Babylon Rogue leader is forced to take a break from his job and falls in love with his longtime rival.
1. Let the speed mend it

It is a beautiful day in Central City. The sky is clear, the sun is shining and flowers are blooming. Traffic is just busy enough so that one is able to drive to all the nice places and have a nice conversation with their loved ones inside the car at the same time. Children are on their way to school, tired but at the same time excited for the weekend that is upon them. Everything is perfectly average; the exact kind of day one would picture when they are asked to describe their ideal Friday.

Jet the Hawk is late to work again.

His wristwatch clings uncomfortably to his arm as he searches for his extreme gear board under the pile of dirty clothes, – something he would have to fix when he wasn't in a hurry – the cracked glass display quietly announcing to no one in particular that the mobian would have around seven minutes to reach his destination. Spiky green feathers are tied into a makeshift ponytail, dark green tips just short of touching his back, soon smushed together without much care after the strap of his goggles wraps around his head.

First came his boots – red with thick white curves running on the sides that had "**HAWK**" on them with bold black letters. A flame pattern ran along the part that touched his ankle, matching with the ones that stamped his white socks. They were also present on his white gloves with red and black cuffs. The last item left was a gray and red sports jacket with the name of his current sponsors on the back – one of which was the company that made the "_not as disgusting as the package makes it look"_ energy drink that would be his whole breakfast for the day.

Extreme gear in hands, Jet was ready to step outside and face the consequences of his actions – but not really! The board in his hand let out a low hum as it was turned on and tossed on the ground, hovering just a few inches above it. His remaining time became five minutes when he was done locking his door and remembering his usual route to work. Despite being home to the "number one extreme gear racer of all time", only a very small portion of the city had official extreme gear routes. Jet could count the number of air pits with just one hand – but he didn't need to, since stopping by one of those was a "loser's move".

No, what Jet usually did was performing tricks off everything that slightly resembled a ramp without much care for anyone else that might be minding their own business in the surroundings. People who had been living in that part of the city for some time knew the exact patches of sidewalk to avoid – lest they get a boardful of irresponsible hawk crashing on them at barely legal speeds. One particularly kind and fearless old lady would even hang a clothesline near her living room window, so that Jet could use it as a grinding rail. Kindness did not go unrewarded, as Jet threw one of his "legendary wind master" caps into her open window while speeding by.

The agency was structured similar to any other sports club, with an unremarkable amount of office space in the front and a large open area in the back. Like the rest of the city, it wasn't well adapted to extreme gear traffic, so it was up to a poor receptionist to prevent the worst from happening. Automatic doors were manually opened at just the right time so Jet would drift inside safely instead of shattering the doors and his career.

"I didn't need your help, I was gonna make it! I timed it in my head!"

The receptionist – who deserved a raise – looked like she was used to the hawk's incessant squawkings and lack of gratitude by that point. Jet took the board under his arm and started heading towards the practice area before she cleared her throat.

"Excuse me, mister Jet? Miss Alina is expecting you in the second floor meeting room," the mobian quickly interjected before the hawk could complain at him, "as per our email from this morning."

His beak opened, then closed after a small pause. Not only did he forget to check his emails during his hurry, but he had also forgotten to bring his phone with him. All he could do was emit an annoyed groan and proceed to climb the stairs. He could have taken the elevator, sure, but it didn't look like he was going to be practicing today anyways so every bit of exercise helped.

Of course, the whole business wasn't dedicated to catering to his every need. It was an agency that worked with athletes from many different (usually unorthodox) sports. There were a few faces he got to see every day that he didn't know by name. They were mostly mobians, much like the majority off the staff, which made him a little more comfortable inside the boring light gray walls of the office space. They stayed in their own lane and the only conflicts that arose were the usual complaints about how much of their earnings was swooped by the higher ups. Everyone else seemed to think it was a good company despite the usual scummy practices, and the staff that interacted directly with the athletes seldom received complaints.

That is, the staff that _didn't interact with Jet_. Jet had many complaints about pretty much everyone who worked with him, and he wasn't shy of letting them know.

The intricate wooden door with Alina's name on it opened and his board was put against the wall in the corner. The parrot mobian's neck feathers ruffled up a tiny bit at Jet's arrival, yet she refused to divert her glance from her monitor until the end of whatever video she was watching. Red hues fixated on the hawk's annoyed expression a full minute later, beak twisting into the closest thing to a polite smile someone with a beak could manage.

"Good morning, Jet." The middle-aged woman took a sip from her coffee. She had one of those fancy new mugs designed specifically for people with beaks, very similar to the one he was rewarded with after his third world grand prix victory that had broken when he tossed his bag on the ground without thinking.

"I should be practicing for the Monopole invitational," he rolled his eyes, "so be quick."

Alina scooted her chair away from her monitor and to the center of her desk so she could face Jet head on. Her suit always looked impeccable, almost as if she wore a new one every day. _With the amount of money that actually reaches me, I wouldn't be surprised_.

"Now now, let's not get ahead of ourselves, that is the reason why I summoned you here today. To put it briefly, you will be absent from this year's events."

Alina braced herself just in time for the hawk to loudly chime up in annoyance, "What in the world are you talking about?! I can't skip on the world grand prix, I'm the le–"

"The _legendary wind master_, yes," she mouthed the title as if she was embarrassed by it, "But hear me out."

Alina switched windows on her computer and turned her monitor to face Jet. A bunch of graphs and numbers Jet was clueless about were thrown around the screen as if the display was made confusing on purpose. The most he could decipher was that the majority of the graphs seemed to be going down – which usually was a bad thing, in his limited business experience.

"You're **too good**. The interest rates for extreme gear racing within the top competitors from past seasons are going down, because they just have no hope of winning as long as you're competing as well. In turn, major manufacturers and repairers are expected to lose income, since less people will make use of their services."

She could almost _hear_ the gears turning inside Jet's head. He was _too good_? Wouldn't that be a good thing? As much as he liked the validation coming from his hassle of a boss, this didn't sound like the whole truth to him. People didn't just get kicked out because they won too much in **any** other sports, right?

"We have decided to pull you out of the competitive circle for this year only," she continued to smile, despite Jet lowkey growling at her, "so that maybe we get a few new faces in the following year. We already set up the PR campaign and no action from you will be necessary. That way, your victory next year will feel even more satisfying to your fans, and maybe we can even plot a rivalry with whoever wins it this year! And yes, before you ask, this was all in your contract. What do you think?"

"I'm surprised my contact _lets_ me think on my own. Why the hell did you not consult me first about this?! I'm going to have a word with…with… with whoever your boss is and I'll have the whole team fired! You can't just decide whether or not **I** compete without consulting **me** first– no, at all!"

Jet didn't stay to see what her reaction to his little outburst was, and he didn't care that much either way. He got on his board and rode through the halls – despite the many makeshift signs on the walls advising against it – in search of his superior's superiors, or whoever was responsible for all this mess.

Turns out, he was right and not in a good way. Thinking on his own was _barely_ allowed under his current contract.

After annoying everyone in the office with a handful of shouting matches against unfeeling businesspeople, Jet left the building without being able to change his situation at all. A one-year break on competing? Were they _out of their minds_? The concept just couldn't enter his feathery little head. Sure, he had more than enough money to live comfortably during the year, but… now _what_? It was March, he would have nine whole months of not racing at all. He wasn't allowed to compete in the upper circles, and the lower ranked matches probably wouldn't allow someone as high ranked as him anyways. He could always move to Monopole or Grand Metropolis for the time being, where the whole city was well adapted for extreme gear and street races were legal and common, but… something just didn't feel right.

Jet stopped to look around. He had walked out of the agency and into a commercial district while he was on his rage-fueled autopilot. That's right, he could probably treat himself to some new clothes now that he didn't need to wear that stupid sponsor jacket every day anymore. But there were also a couple of restaurants across the street, whose fresh lunch aromas were fighting for his attention. Maybe this wasn't so bad! He couldn't entertain himself with novelties for a whole year, but… he had something to do for the first two days, at least!

He was about to start walking to the nearest place that would allow him to impulse purchase a custom leather jacket when he felt himself being pulled backwards and lifted into the air by his waist by a giant hand as if he was an action figure.

"Jet! Hey Jet, what a coincidence it is to see you here! Don't you think? Here, hold Junior for me."

Even if they had disbanded years ago, it was still very weird for Jet to hear Storm calling him anything other than "boss". Despite him having gotten taller, the albatross' height seemed to also have increased to maintain the height gap between them. Besides now wearing a shirt, some kind of weird harness and even pants, Storm still looked the same as always. Huge, loud, inconvenient and pretty much one of his last remaining friends.

Jet felt something large and round being placed into his hands before he was put back down and flipped so he could properly face Storm, but he didn't have time to process what it was before Storm assaulted him with his voice again. "I just got back from lunch. I saw you on TV a couple of times since we had that meeting together last year, you're still going strong!"

"Not right now, Storm. You caught me in a bad time." Jet groaned to himself and handed the egg back to the albatross. Wait, egg?

"What is this? Some kind of toy you bought for your girlfriend?"

"Oh no, we're gonna get married soon and this is our son! We don't know what his name's gonna be yet, so we're calling him Junior for now. What do you think? Big and strong like his dad, huh?"

Jet's jaw dropped to the floor in response, the hawk just now identifying his weird harness thing as a _baby carrier_. Storm, out of all the people around his age he knew, was the one to get married and have a kid first? Someone could put up with _Storm_ for that long? _How_?! He had never seen the albatross' partner in person, only a few mentions here and there throughout the years. And he couldn't even claim he was making this whole girlfriend deal up anymore, since that egg was right in front of him!

"That's… I– That's great, man. I'm… wow, your girlf– fiancé really doesn't have any ears, huh? Congratulations, man, I need to book the same therapist as her. When's the wedding?"

"In like… two months? Three? You know I'm not good with numbers." Storm completely ignored Jet's rudeness as always, a big grin on his face. "You're gonna be the best man, of course! I should take you to meet Cloud before that though, maybe we can do something together."

Jet snickered. The idea that Storm found a partner with the same namesake was very funny to him.

"Can it be right now? I haven't had lunch yet so we can go to whatever all-you-can-eat buffet hasn't banned you yet to get your second and my first."

"Oh sorry Jet, I promised Cloud I was going to some weird parenting class so I know how to take care of Junior when he's born."

"That's a _thing_?"

"Yeah, I didn't know either! After that I have to go to work, then I'm gonna build a crib in woodworking class, then I'm gonna grab some more ceramic owls for Cloud's collection, then I'm gonna…"

Jet was starting to lose his temper at Storm. When did he start doing so many things? Storm, the bumbling clumsy idiot that used to be his Babylon Rogues teammate? He could barely read traffic signs when they first met! Of course, people change and grow over time, but… but…

He didn't.

Anger turned to sadness and a pang of guilt, a knot forming in the hawk's stomach. Everyone had always told Jet that he looked like he was born on an extreme gear board – and that wasn't entirely wrong – and now he could see that wasn't so much of a _positive_ thing. Where had his other hobbies gone? The only thing he could recall besides racing was… well, thieving. And he wasn't going back to that. He wouldn't sabotage the _perfectly average_ life he and his former gang had given up almost their whole treasure stash for.

"Aw man, I told Wave I was gonna go and see if there was still anything valuable inside our old airship. I guess if I move knitting a few more days ahead then I can–"

"No worries, Storm, I'll do that for you this once," Jet suddenly chimed in, his tone a fair bit desperate despite how cool he was trying to make himself look with his crossed arms and closed eyes, "you go and make sure your kid gets smarter than you when he grows up. Not like that's very difficult, of course."

"Thanks so much bo– Jet! I owe you one for that. I'll take you out for dinner next week, how's that sound?"

"Great, great." Jet was busy trying to think of anything worthwhile that might still be in that airship. Nothing came to mind, but he was sure he'd find something interesting in there anyways! "I'm going to head out now, you know how busy I get too. With my _racing_ and all that. I'll see you around, big guy!"

Jet got on his board and began speeding off, until he realized their old airship was in a storage unit all the way in _Station Square_. His Type-J was made for short bursts of speed, not long-distance trips. He waited until no one was looking before he got off the board. Very anticlimactic, but even Jet and his massive ego knew he couldn't ride his board everywhere.

The hawk made a quick stop by his apartment to get his phone and a sandwich before hopping into a bus to Station Square. Despite it being the end of the week, there was almost no one inside the vehicle. The few people traveling along with him were quiet, occupied with their own little things as the scenery shifted besides them. Jet still couldn't help but delve on how differently he and Storm had grown up. Storm was a whole different person, and Jet was still… Jet! The same short (in both height and temper), big mouthed hawk few liked and nobody took seriously.

Bah, what was he thinking? He didn't need to be liked. He was already **loved** by hundreds! Thousands! There was an army of fans out there that bought his merch no matter what and bought tickets to all of his races – not to mention the ones that couldn't support him financially but still cheered for him as much as they could. Yet despite all that, he couldn't help but feel like was on his own, in a way. Like a child that got ignored by their classmates and parents until it was time to be lifted without warning and placed on the metaphorical baby chair.

He only noticed they had arrived when the bus doors opened and the sound of the crowd made its way into the bus. Dozens of people, both humans and mobians, chatting and laughing and waiting for their busses so they could go somewhere and have fun with their weekend.

Board in hand, valuables in pocket and sandwich in stomach, he rode his way into the city. Station Square was way less packed than Empire City, he noted. Sidewalks seemed wider and the skyscrapers smaller. Places like Twinkle Park and the casino were right there and widely accessible to anyone lucky enough to live a few blocks from them. There were tons of parks, plazas and squares, which helped cement that… well, people actually lived in there! Despite the city's partial destruction by Perfect Chaos a few years, everything seemed as lively as it could be. Fissures in the landscape were patched up, covered with flowers and trees and life.

There was probably a very obvious metaphor somewhere in there, but Jet being Jet didn't notice it at all.

It was the middle of the afternoon at that point, and Jet just realized he hadn't planned where he was going to stay for the night. Shoot. Might as well go and get a reservation on whatever reasonably-priced hotel he could find. He was slowly hovering around on his board, looking over the usual crowd or group of inconveniently tall humans when something – no, _someone_ caught his attention.

"Look who it is, Sonic the Hedgehog!"

The blue hedgehog was walking alone, drinking a smoothie from a large plastic cup and minding his own business when Jet sped by. He snatched the drink from his hands and then braked in front of him, taking a sip of his own through the straw. Banana? Not bad, not bad. Sonic let out a small "hey!" and was ready to dash after the thief before he saw who the culprit was. A small grin was all that filled his face, one hand on his hip and the other doing the usual no-no finger waggle.

"Jet, hey buddy! Is your racing career going so bad that you have to go back to stealing from innocent people?" Ouch, that one hurt more than it should. The Hawk still kept it cool though, crossing his arms over his chest and scoffing.

"Better than yours is ever going to be, hedgehog! I was just attending to some business and decided to say hi to my favorite slowpoke."

"Aw you flatter me! You're making me a little hot on the face right now, dude. Is it time for our yearly race yet?"

That's right, he had forgotten about that! After their last encounter at Monopole to sort out the whole "ark of the cosmos" ordeal, they had made a habit out of racing every once a year to see who the "fastest thing in the universe" was. They were pretty even actually, with Jet having tied the score during the last year. He couldn't say he had gotten to know Sonic much better – their relationship was still a somewhat shallow but harmless rivalry that only fueled both of their desires to get better at extreme gear racing. Jet thought Sonic was a cool guy, but there was no way he was going to let anyone catch him saying that! Jet made sure Sonic was looking at him before he tossed the smoothie back to its rightful owner.

"Hah, you're trying to trick me, Sonic the Hedgehog? Unless you're keeping your board in the same place you keep your ego, I don't see any way of making this happen."

"Oh, shoot! Yeah, I didn't think about that." Sonic let out a small embarrassed chuckle. "Wanna give me a ride home? I'll let you grab on my waist and everything while I show you what the _fastest thing alive_ can do!"

Jet shot him an unamused look and got off his board in response. He immediately noticed how tall Sonic had gotten in the last six years. It made him feel… a sort of way. They walked beside each other to Sonic's house, which was actually owned and mostly maintained by his friend Tails. They were going slow enough for Jet to be able to notice the number of cars on the street to wane along with the sunlight. A nice shade of orange now filled the horizon, with a few small clouds floating along peacefully.

"So, how's stuff going? I'm assuming you're still winning every race you get into," Sonic turned to face Jet, eyes filled with casual sincerity instead of the usual joking smirk, "besides ours, of course."

"Of course I am, I'm the legendary wind master! I'm good at everything I do." That look on his eyes was probably what compelled Jet to confess about the current state of things. "At least next year I'll be again. They're not letting me race in the big leagues at all this year as a publicity stunt or whatever."

"Whaaaat, that sucks man! I can't imagine you going a whole year without racing, it's like… all you ever do!" That one hurt even more.

"Tell me about it, hedgehog."

Whether that was a witty comeback or a genuine acknowledgement, not even Jet himself could tell. He thought it was interesting how he was now kind of walking in circles, since the only way to the Mystic Ruins was through a passageway in the Station Square Station he arrived from earlier. It was a sudden shift from civilization to nature – a rustic yet solid looking stairway built besides the station led them down into the wilds. The moon was starting peek from behind the clouds, giving small glimpses of its light to be reflected by the glossy looking grasses and other plants.

The distant sound of a waterfall eased Jet from his bad thoughts and made him release a breath he didn't know he was holding. Sonic had probably noticed that, since the hawk didn't remember him having that little smile on his face before. Tails' house was just right in front of them now, porch lighting illuminating both speedsters as they came to a stop. The fox's workshop stood a couple feet away, looking more like an oversized garage than anything in Jet's opinion.

"Okay, I'm totally gonna sound like a quitter right now but… can we do this tomorrow or something? I still have to make dinner for Tails, this is like the third time this week I got home late..."

Almost like on cue, the front door opened to reveal the two-tailed fox in question. _"Finally, someone that's still shorter than me!", _Jet thought to himself.

"I already ordered a pizza this time, I'm supposed to be the smart one in this house." Tails chuckled, his expression shifting to a polite yet confused smile once he laid eyes on the bird. "Oh hey Jet, long time no see!"

Jet mouthed a small "hey". He was… pretty indifferent to the kid – no, teenager. His rivalry was with Sonic, he had no reason to be snarky to him. Wave would have to confront her jealousy of him by herself, it wasn't his responsibility to pick fights with his former gang member's rivals anymore.

"Well, since you want to take the _quitters route_, I'll be on my way to find a hotel for the night. But I'll be here at dawn to uphold our challenge, Sonic the Hedgehog!"

Jet scoffed and got on his board to ride away, but Sonic managed to put his hand on the bird's shoulder before he could do so.

"Wait! You're going out to find a hotel at this time? That's like trying to find anything in my room. Tails can confirm, he lost a wrench there last week and nothing came up even when we ran metal detectors through the whole house. Isn't that right, buddy?"

Tails nodded slowly, even though he didn't look too happy with where this was going. Jet didn't get off his board just yet, but he did shrug Sonic's hand away before turning to face him.

"What, do you expect me to spend the night in there instead?"

Sonic went quiet for a few moments before letting out a "yeah!", followed by a loud "what!" from both Jet and Tails.

"Who do you think I am? I'm the legendary wind master, I'm totally fine on my own. Hell, I might even get the same thing that makes you so slow if I stand next to you for too long!"

A pause.

"…But! I know you're oh so desperate to bail on the race tomorrow, so I'll have to stay here and make sure you don't jump out the window in the middle of the night."

Sonic cheered out loud enough so that neither of them could hear Tails whining by the door.

He could already tell it was going to be a long night.


	2. And you've ruined it again

"So…Jet. What's up with you being an alien descendant again? How did that end up?"

Tails looked like he was trying his best to be polite to Jet despite the fact that he was… well, Jet! As if taunting Sonic at every opportunity over the most minor of things with his vuvuzela of a voice wasn't enough, the fox had to watch the two _animals_ have a pizza eating competition with the large ham, bacon and pineapple pizza – the one Tails knew he'd regret ordering for Sonic. At least they weren't making a mess, despite how loud they were eating.

Jet looked away from his leftover crust to give Tails a shrug. "Eh, it didn't really go anywhere. They did some blood tests and all that but the Babylonian genes are so mixed in with regular mobian genes that it's hard to tell the difference at this point."

"So we just… casually discover that some mobians are part alien and nothing happens? Not a Nobel prize, anything?" Sonic decided he had enough of taunting Jet for his loss at the eating contest. For now, at least. He was sitting opposite to Jet, elbows resting on the table and head leaning forward to focus on the emerging conversation. There were still some crumbs on his muzzle.

"Like you need any more prizes, hedgehog. It's not really that weird considering the things _you_ fight every year."

"I mean… Jet is kind of right, Sonic. There was that whole Black Arms invasion back in the day that pretty much confirmed to the general public that aliens exist. There's not a lot else you can say about them that would really make people be surprised anymore."

"Since when do you agree with Jet on things, huh?" Sonic huffed, blowing a few stray quills out of his face. Jet found it entertaining to watch, but he had to look away and huff when the hedgehog caught him staring.

"Don't make me recall all the times we had to team up with Eggman and you got friendly with him."

"Don't say it like that, gross!"

"Don't compare me to that buffoon, fox!"

"See? Now you two are teaming up against me!" Tails laughed. He got up and started taking away their mostly empty plates, but Jet wouldn't give away his.

"I'll wash the dishes. I have to repay you for the pizza somehow." That got him a very confused look from Tails. As if he didn't know Jet was capable of being nice.

"Oh! Um… Sure thing! Thanks Jet!" Tails still took away the remainder of the dishes, putting them on the sink as Jet walked there to begin washing them. "I… Guess me and Sonic can go ahead and pick what movie we're gonna watch, then! Do you have any preferences?"

The hawk opened his beak to open, but closed it after a few moments. That was a good question – what was the last time he had stopped to watch a movie? He was used to rewatching his races to see where he could improve – and sometimes even old reports about the Babylon Rogues when he felt especially nostalgic – but a movie? For _fun_?

"Jet—"

"The best ones you have! Don't waste my time with… with documentaries or whatever snoozefests _you _watch, though."

Tails raised an eyebrow and looked at Sonic, who just gave him a shrug and an equally confused look in return. He _almost_ felt bad about talking to Tails like that, but it ultimately didn't bother him enough to dwell on it. He excused himself out of the room and called Sonic as well, leaving Jet alone with the dishes. The first floor was mostly silent now, besides the sound of the two mobians walking around upstairs.

Jet had to admit, it was a pretty nice house! Fairly big too, considering only two people lived in it. It had a kitchen, a living room, even a porch! It beat living in an airship for most of his life by a longshot. Plus, there was all the stuff upstairs that he hadn't even got to see yet. It was way more spacious than his own apartment, but probably harder to clean and organize. It felt like home. but not _his _home.

If he was still his old self, he'd immediately try to deduce where the valuables were – not that he hadn't, just not on purpose. The only thing on Jet's mind were the things he'd find inside that dusty airship and the amount of dishes he had left.

And _Sonic the Hedgehog_, for some reason.

Jet really didn't know what it was, but Sonic looked way more… calm? No, that wasn't the word. Way less **feisty** than usual. They weren't on bad terms anymore, but they didn't skimp on the taunts and quips either. The fact that Sonic didn't say a word until they had arrived by his house was pretty weird. He couldn't really complain about it anyways, it wasn't like it felt _bad_. Just out of the ordinary for their usual dynamic.

What were they now anyways? _Friends_? That certainly felt like something friends would do together. A movie and pizza night, followed by a big race the following day. He was even going to be sleeping there and everything! The more Jet thought about it, the less likely the whole situation felt. Sonic really just came out of the woodwork and asked him to stay overnight like that, huh?

It made him feel… some sort of way. He still had to come to terms with the fact that he was having fun, he didn't have time for this _mystery feeling_ just yet.

Jet had finished the dishes soon enough. He was about to climb upstairs to sneak up on his hosts to see if they were trash talking him behind his back, but they sped downstairs before he could even take a step out of the ktichen. Sonic carrying a big pile of DVDs in his arms and Tails had a blanket and some pillows with him, which Jet assumed would be his for the night. He couldn't help but scoff.

"What took you so long, Sonic the Hedgehog? I thought you were supposed to be the fastest thing alive."

"Being fast doesn't keep you from getting indecisive. We just ended up getting all of them, we can shuffle the boxes and watch them in whatever order they end up in. Unless you want to pick one."

Sonic put the movies down on the coffee table by the living room and Jet took some time to browse through all of them. Lots of Disney movies, a decent amount of Studio Ghibli, some comedies… he had to admit they had a pretty good taste in movies. He wanted to be cliché and pick Aladdin, but he wouldn't be able to stop nitpicking it now that he had seen the real magic carpet. Something action packed, something loud, something that would make him look cool in front of Sonic…

Wait, what was that last one again?

"I wanna watch Pacific Rim. The one with the robots and the aliens."

Sonic couldn't help but laugh a little at his movie choice. Jet hadn't even thought about it like that! Now he looked stupid.

"Getting nostalgic, huh? But good pick anyways, it's one of Tails' favorites." Never mind, everything is fine! "I don't think I've ever finished it myself. Only ever caught glimpses of it."

"You just doze off in the middle of a movie like this? You really are a grandma, Sonic the Hedgehog."

It was Jet's turn to laugh, so they were even now. The three of them moved to sit on the living room couch. Sonic was the last one to join, sitting in between Jet and Tails after he threw the blanket over them and put the movie on. Jet was trying to avoid sitting too close to Sonic, since the closer he got the stronger the _mystery feeling_ got, but he eventually gave in because it was warmer if they all huddled together. He was still not touching the hedgehog, of course, but he might as well have been for how **warm** he was feeling.

Unbeknownst to Tails, who was completely focused on the movie, the two of them were actually fighting a silent battle. Jet first caught Sonic's eyelids drooping at about fifteen minutes into the movie only – and he just had to give sleepy blue a taunting smirk for that. Though after about five more minutes he was the one trying not to fall asleep. The two of them were now only half watching the movie, eyes moving left and right to check if the other had fallen victim to their drowsiness.

Jet just wanted an excuse to keep staring at Sonic. Not that he knew or would admit that, of course.

It was only when Jet's phone started ringing halfway through that the two of them broke their deep focus – both almost having a heart attack since Jet's ringtone was as loud as he was. Sonic had to admit though, whatever song that was it was sort of catchy.

"_No turning back_

_We are born to dream_

_In a world full of seeing_

_What we never could reach_

_Air time makes on the wind, I'd be…_"

Jet struggled to grab his phone from his jacket pocket in the chaos, almost dropping it a few times before firmly grasping it in his hands. Who could be calling him that late into the night? Spam maybe? Nah, he was pretty sure he took care of that a few months ago. Storm needing help with something stupid like taking care of his egg? Maybe. Wave never called him, but it wasn't entirely impossible that'd she'd start no—

"_Father"._

Of course. The worst case scenario.

"Hey, pause the movie. I'm going outside to take this call."

"H-hey, you can't just leave, I'm comfy!" Sonic booed and crossed his arms, while Tails complied with a slightly annoyed grunt.

"It's from my dad. He's going to ruin the mood."

"So? I promise I won't moan your name or anything dude, we're all grownups here. Maybe not Tails, but he's well behaved most of the time."

"Hey!"

Jet rolled his eyes. He didn't have time to argue with Sonic about that – as much as he loved that song, he knew making his father wait would only make things worse. Right when he was starting to come to terms with the fact that he was having fun, dammit. At least he could prove a point to Sonic, even if it was petty. He put on the speakerphone.

"Hey da—"

"**I'm surprised you actually picked up, I thought you'd be crying yourself to sleep right now you little runt. Picture me, watching the evening news, when I see someone familiar on the TV… my useless pigeon of a son! Looks like you won't be doing your cute little races for quite some time, yeah Jet? Let me guess, they also kicked you off for being a massive disappointment to their image. Don't lie to me, boy, I've put up with you for long enough so I know how things are. You're a disgrace to your ancestors and your…**"

Jet looked around, and both of them were looking at him and the phone with the most horrified expressions he had ever seen. Those were freaking him out more than his dad's rant was. Jet put the phone under the pile of cushions besides him – muffled enough so that they could talk without having to shout but still loud enough so that he'd know when the old man started yapping.

"I warned you."

"You didn't tell us it was this bad, geez! Aren't you gonna say anything back to him?"

"It's no use, he just keeps going until he's out of ways to insult me. Just play the movie a bit louder."

"Can't you hang up on him then?"

"He'll call again."

"Just go ahead and block his number if he's gonna keep being a jerk like that!"

"…Mmmmh."

"Here, I'll do it for you."

Jet wasn't really planning on trying to stop Sonic – but it wasn't like he could anyways. The blue blur got up and took the phone from under the pile in a burst of speed, ending up besides Jet.

"…**but I am very generous, you see! Even if our kind is used to taking away, today I'm going to be giving you another opportunity to redeem yourself to your legacy. All you need to do is—**"

"Hey beakface, don't you need to breathe? We're trying to watch a movie here."

That… actually managed to make his father stay quiet? I guess Jet would be surprised too if one of his calls suddenly got hijacked by Sonic the Hedgehog, but… _wow_. Just wow.

"Yeah, that's right. Hear that? Exactly, and neither will Jet since I'm blocking your number. See you never!" _Beep!_ "And… Uh, where's the thing… there you go, number blocked! Hopefully he won't buy a new phone or anything to pester you again, but if he does then I'll just have to go pay him a visit. Right, Jet?"

Jet had his jaw on the floor. He could have just… done that? All along? Sure it wasn't that easy, right? It felt nice to take a break from the old man putting him down pretty much every week, but at the same time…No, Sonic was right. If he was going to be a jerk, then he didn't deserve to be heard. The _legendary wind master_ couldn't spare seconds off his precious day to let a crazy old man shout down his ear holes. Then why did that feel so… weird?

Because it was _Sonic_ who did it for him, that's why. He wanted to be mad at Sonic, he wanted to be absolutely furious that the hedgehog was meddling with his family life. But he couldn't. He just couldn't bring himself to feel anything other than relieved. And he kind of hated himself for it.

"You didn't have to put on a show for him. Just hanging up and blocking the number was enough. I don't know if blocking the number is going to help at all either, but whatever." Jet raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms over his chest. _Dammit_, why couldn't he just be thankful?

Sonic raised an eyebrow at Jet, then his expression morphed into a glare. _Oh no_.

"You're welcome, geez." Sonic tossed the phone back at him gently, with a very unamused expression on his face. "The movie, Tails."

The fox was still taken aback by the whole situation, taking a few seconds before he processed the command and put the movie back on. Jet knew he had messed up. It didn't feel as warm as before. He could feel himself…panicking? What _was_ that? He shouldn't care that much about how his dad reacted to all of that. Much less about how he made Sonic feel. He shouldn't care at all! They must have put something on that pizza while he was distracted, he never felt that weird before.

The remaining half of the movie played excruciatingly slowly. He tried to take a few peeks at Sonic like they were doing before, but the hedgehog was completely fixated on the screen. Jet wouldn't blame him, he also felt like he wasn't going to fall asleep in the next year or so. All because he couldn't keep his _stupid_ mouth shut.

"So… race tomorrow huh?"

Sonic's monotone voice snapped him out of… whatever that was. The credits were rolling, the couch was empty. Tails could just barely be seen climbing upstairs, and Sonic was staring at him from besides him with a painfully neutral expression. How did he get here?

"Yeah. Whoever gets up first wakes the other." There was no competitiveness in his voice, despite what that sort of proposal would lead one to believe. Sonic raised an eyebrow, indecipherable.

"Cool, sounds good for me. I'll see you tomorrow."

Even if Sonic was the blue blur, he had just… vanished out of Jet's sight as soon as he finished the sentence. He probably hadn't actually done that, but it felt like he did in Jet's dazed state. He could just barely see the moonlight peeking from in between the blinds. He was pretty sure it was past midnight by that point, but he didn't want to check his phone to confirm it. He had no clue what in the world had just gone down, but he hoped some sleep would help him clear his mind.

But despite how hard he tossed and turned, sleep would not come. The couch was comfortable, the blanket was soft and the cushions were still warm. And he was tired – oh boy he was **so tired**. There was no reason for sleep not to come.

_Yeah there is._

Ugh, fine. Maybe he was a _bit _upset about being a dick to Sonic. So what! He was friends with Sonic now, of course he'd be upset. Just as upset as if he was accidentally rude to Storm or Wave… oh. Well, yeah, Storm and Wave were longtime friends, he had just started getting to know Sonic better. And now everything was ruined, just because he couldn't bring his dumb beak to say "thank you" once. Just _once_.

Whatever. It's not like they'd get along very well anyways. Sonic was really the fastest thing in the universe, and Jet just ended up trampling over him whenever he tried to catch up. He was never meant to have friends at all, even! _His father was probably right_.

Jet got tired of just laying there and feeling bad and went to grab a glass of water. He stopped to look through the blinds on his way there. The moon was still shining. He could barely see a glimpse of the city from where he was, bright and lively as always. Full of business, people having fun and what not. A new bus had arrived by the Station Square Station, but not many people were getting in to leave the city.

Leave… that's right, that's why he was there! The airship! It was at the other end of the city, but he could make it there in no time if he used his board. It wasn't like he had a set time to get there anyways – the gates were automatic and Jet had the small ID card that would allow him entry still in his wallet. The only thing he had to do was get out of the house.

Which was easier said than done. Jet's whole body felt like it weighed a ton. He had to take a small break when he reached the living room once again. And another one after he retrieved his board from the corner of the room. Now all that was left was to head through the front door. One step at a time. It wasn't a physical sluggishness; he knew that much. Something deep, _very _deep in his brain was telling him to stay. That he could fix the whole situation if he just stopped and had an open and honest talk with Sonic.

Bah, like he would ever be able to do that. He was Jet the Hawk, he didn't care about anyone's feelings. He was just a jerk.

His leg movements were heavy and clumsy, but he didn't make much actual noise. Years of thievery and heists ingrained the silent walking technique into his muscles. No matter how much noise he thought he was making, nobody would listen. The sun might as well have risen up again – the hawk was taking his sweet time opening that door even after he reached it.

And… **there**. The cool night air immediately hit him, hard. He wanted to go back to the warmth, to the _fun_. Jet was fully aware and conscious of the fact that he wanted to stay a little longer. But now his body was doing the opposite, forcing him to go ahead and put his goggles on. Fingers gripped the board with the little control he had. He was ready to go.

"Jet, hey… I'm… Jet?"

Of course, the worst case scenario yet again.

Jet got on his board and sped away as soon as he heard the hedgehog's footsteps getting closer. He could agree with his body on that decision – Sonic was the last thing he wanted in his mind right now.

The sound of footsteps stopped soon after he zigzagged up to the Station Square Station through the wooden platforms. Jet thought that was it, but the familiar sound of a second extreme gear board echoed through the empty night air besides him. He didn't need to look behind him to know that Sonic was closing the distance. The station was empty enough so that he didn't need to dodge anyone, thankfully. He took a dive forward and out through the other side, using the stairway's rail to grind and recover some of his board's air supply.

The city was a different story, however. Full of both pedestrians and vehicles, it would be quite a challenge to navigate through – for anyone that wasn't a pro, at least. The legendary wind master could do it with no issue on the regular, doing it in his current weird hyper-aware yet dazed state would be even less of an issue. The things in front of him were a good way to distract himself from what was in his mind and right behind his board.

Two blurs dashed through the city, one blue and one green. For anyone that happened to be nearby, it was like a light show. The hawk and the hedgehog constantly changed paths, branching and then reuniting. Both of them had the exact same type of extreme gear, so they just had to spot anything that looked like a grind rail to predict where the other was going next. Ramps weren't out of the question either. The vertical distance between them would ultimately be what decided who the winner would be.

Jet knew he was going to come out the loser regardless.

They were on top of stores at first, thanks to a conveniently placed dumpster with wooden planks sticking out of it at an angle. Next were the small apartment complexes. Even without anything ramp-shaped in sight, they had enough momentum going on so that reaching greater distances and heights wouldn't be so much of an issue.

How they got on top of the city's tallest skyscraper Jet didn't know. And how he was going to get off it… He didn't know either. None of the other buildings matched it in height, there was no comfortable landing spot. Even the closest building he could go down to would probably result in a few broken bones for him – but his board would be intact. It was just a matter of _doing it_.

He had decelerated quite a bit so that he could think about his next step, but he couldn't hear the sound of Sonic's board anymore so he didn't worry too much about it. He set his sights onto the apartment complex in front of him, and boosted forward.

For a moment, he was in the air. He couldn't feel the air from his board hitting the building anymore, and gravity started catching up to him. But then he just… stopped. Frozen in midair while still hanging off the building. He was pulled back onto solid ground after just a few short moments of watching his board fly off into the distance without him and fell on his back. The blue hedgehog was now looming over him.

Gaia, he was a mess. Stray quills sticking out here and there, sweating and panting heavily. Jet had no idea how he managed to get so worked up over a little chase – he was Sonic the Hedgehog, the fastest thing in the universe. A little tour around the city on his board shouldn't be enough to tire him out like that. Why did he even get his board anyways? He'd probably have catched Jet much sooner if he just ran after him.

"What the **hell** is your problem, man?!"

They just stood still in their positions for a while. The hedgehog had fire in his eyes hot enough to melt and reshape the building so that it would consume the hawk where he laid. Jet didn't dare to avert his gaze away from Sonic's face either, though it was mostly out of silent intimidation than anything. He had never seen Sonic this _angry _before, not even on the day of that rigged extreme gear race six years ago. Jet wanted to disappear.

But he didn't. Instead, Sonic's expression softened at a very slow pace. Anger turned into annoyance, annoyance turned into frustration and frustration turned into… something between pity and guilt. Jet couldn't tell, he wasn't good at reading people. The blue blur eventually took a deep breath, slumping down on the floor besides Jet once he finished exhaling.

"Sure is pretty up here, huh? I just don't know how we're gonna get down, I jumped off my board so I could reach you fast enough." Sonic let out a small chuckle, chin tucked to his knees as his emerald gaze wandered into the city below.

It was still very "alive", but things looked like they were starting to calm down slowly. People were starting to head back home from their night jobs, some ending their shifts and getting replaced by equally sleepy workers. There were barely any cars in the streets now; the ones that did arrive stopped by gas stations and convenience stores to refuel. It was still very bright down there, but it was as if a cozy veil of silence and tranquility had been lowered into the civilization below.

"Jet, I… Look. It was pretty rude of me to freak out on you… trying to defend your dad or whatever that was. Tails told me that people who were emotionally abused as a child often do that subconsciously. I wouldn't know that, but I _should_ have known that. That wasn't cool."

Jet couldn't bring himself to look at Sonic, but he could give him a very, _very_ faint nod. In truth, he wasn't sure if that was the case himself, but what Sonic was saying did fit his situation pretty well in most other cases.

"Can't talk for once? That's fine, I'll just keep monologuing. Feel free to chime in at any time to tell me I'm full of crap, though. I know you love doing that."

Another laugh. As if Sonic wanted to find a way to release the tension between them instead of finding his own words genuinely funny.

"I feel bad admitting this, but I… I don't know. I sort of invited you to stay over because you looked kind of in a bad headspace. I mean… you stopped talking back to me! Like, that was more than half an hour of silence. You had me really worried, I didn't know you could stay quiet for that long."

That got a chuckle out of Jet, and he even took his goggles off his face. If Sonic was trying to get him to talk by making him laugh, it was working.

"Chaos, I… barely know anything about you now that I think about it. I have an image of you in my head, but it's like… the fourteen years old Jet. Always racing, always mad about something… that's why it's so jarring to see you have like… emotions and all that, you know? Like when you idolize someone so much that you're like… surprised they have real world problems as well? Amy could have taken a page out of that book a few years ago, that's for sure."

"So you idolize me?"

Jet was delighted to see how surprised Sonic got by him finally speaking up, a giant shit eating grin on his beak. The hedgehog raised his hands up defensively.

"What? No way dude, I was just using that as an example! You're cool and all, but you used to be like a professional thief! That's not the kind of role model I'd want." Sonic settled down after, looking away. "Though that's…old Jet, like I said. I mean, I don't know if you still do stuff like that nowadays, but I haven't seen you on TV recently that's for sure."

"I have a job now, Sonic the Hedgehog. A real job where I can get real money. I wouldn't throw that away just for the sake of thrill-seeking."

"Sorry, I just wasn't sure. A lot of people go back on their bad habits, I'm glad to see that's not you. And… you can just call me Sonic, dude. You don't see me calling you _Jet the Hawk_ every time."

"Hmph. I'll do what you ask this once, _Sonic_."

It felt foreign. Personal even, like he was invading his personal space just by calling him his name. But that's what they were doing, right? Breaking some of the boundaries between them and establishing some new ones.

"There you go! Much better, huh? You can cram even more snarky comebacks into your sentences now that you're not saying my full title."

Jet was glad Sonic was taking this all so well, especially because he still couldn't bring himself to say "sorry" or "thank you". There were still some things he needed to figure out before he could do that – both about Sonic and himself.

"…That counted as our race, by the way. And I won."

"Huh? No it didn't!" Sonic exclaimed, followed by a few slightly exasperated chuckles. "That wasn't fair, I wasn't really trying to win anything. I was just trying to figure out what the hell you were doing."

"Those sound like the words of someone who just lost a race…. Sonic."

"Can't we have a rematch tomorrow, then? I'm ready to tie the score at least."

"Sure, but I'm busy tomorrow. Have to do some stuff for Wave."

"Can I come?"

"Huh?"

Jet finally turned to look at Sonic, a great deal of confusion on his face and a big rush of _mystery feeling_ once again.

"I mean, only if you're not gonna steal or anything like that."

"I don't steal anymore, shut up with that!" Jet huffed. "I'm just going to sort out the old Babylon Rogues airship to see if there's anything valuable still in there. Not really a good field trip if you don't wanna be reminded of the _old _Jet."

"I mean… I can get to know the new Jet too, you know. I wanna see his reaction to whatever's still in there. Who knows, maybe he'll find something that makes him go back to stealing. Or worse, he might even start being nice to me! Could you imagine?"

"Don't talk like I'm not here right beside you, it's weird. But whatever, you can come as long as you help me with the work. Moving stuff around and all that."

"Can do! I'll even bring Tails to help, I'm sure he's still annoyed with me for letting you stay but I can bribe him with sweets."

"…Shouldn't you call him to get us down from here?"

"Good idea."


	3. Seeing blue

Jet was surprised his extreme gear board still worked despite not landing at the correct building at all. There were a few small dents here and there, but it was still functional and he had still managed to beat Sonic on the race to the airship garage using it. He didn't have time to gloat until Sonic's ears started bleeding this time, though. They had business to do there.

It wasn't much of an "airship garage" at all, really. It was more along the lines of an oversized football stadium with various kinds of vehicles and machines parked in it. There were markings on the ground delimiting how much wiggle room each of those had, and a plaque with the owner's name on the ground for good measure.

The square the blimp was stationed in was more than enough to house it – and there was a decent amount of air space to maneuver in case they needed to leave with it – but Jet said they wouldn't be able to actually pilot it today. He didn't seem too bothered by that, but Sonic was making the biggest pouty face.

"Aww, I really wanted to fly this thing! What if there's like… I don't know, something we have to take back to Wave in a pinch? Our boards wouldn't make it there in time. I mean… _I_ could, but y'know. We're a team now, I can't just leave you behind!"

"We're a _what_ now? As far as I'm concerned, you're just here to do some manual labor for me and then you'll scram." Jet huffed, fetching his keys from his wallet. "It takes forever to get them to open the ceiling for us anyways, Wave would already be dead by the time we even got this thing off the ground. We'd have a better time riding on the fox's plane if we need to get there quickly. Which we probably won't, so don't get your hopes up for that either."

"Tails never taught me how to drive the Tornado, though. And I can't really count on him to take us there, at least not for today. I tried waking him up to see if he wanted to come with us but he bit me! It's still hurting a bit too…" Sonic made a pouty face, rubbing his right hand. The glove had a few fang-sized holes on it, but he couldn't really see Sonic's hand through them.

"It's your fault for not looking where you dropped your board, hedgehog." Jet simply shrugged and took out a remote from his wallet as well. He pressed one of the buttons and the airship started emitting a low hum before lowering a ramp for them to be able to get on board. The gondola door had to be opened using the keys – which Sonic thought was weird since there was more than enough space for an _open door_ button on that remote.

Jet suddenly stopped once he stepped a foot inside the airship. It was as if nothing had changed. It felt as if it was just another day of planning heists and then doing nothing inside his personal office. Sonic then arrived and took him out of that memory, not seeing to notice Jet had been staring at nothing for about thirty seconds.

Whoever Wave had hired to take care of the ship in their absence, they were probably being paid _quadruple_ digits. He had never seen the interior so clean before, not even when the Rogues took a whole week off to do maintenance. The metallic walls sparkled as soon as Jet turned on the interior lights, reflecting both mobians on their glossy red coating. Their steps echoed as they ventured deeper inside, indicating there was more space than Sonic initially imagined.

"Huh! I've always thought this would way more cramped. Why did you guys need this much space anyways? Were the heists _that_ successful?"

"_We_ didn't really need it. This ship has been passed down from generation to generation, and the Babylon Rogues used to be… you know, a proper gang. Not just three people."

"The fact that you still managed to keep this thing working even if you were always understaffed is pretty impressive, I have to say."

"I'm starting to think you _do_ idolize the old Jet." He gave Sonic a smirk.

"Again with that, _Flicky_? I'm just saying, you Rogues were pretty competent at your job. Even if that job was stealing from the innocent."

That nickname was new. It made a wave of mystery feeling roll through Jet's body. He was lucky his feathers were brightly colored, or else Sonic would be able to make out a faint blush on his face under them.

"So big banks and museums that steal cultural artifacts from other countries to fill their expositions are innocent now? I never thought Sonic the Hedgehog was a _bootlicker_, but the dirt does suit you very well."

"Hey, that's—!" Sonic crossed his arms and huffed, visibly flustered, "It… doesn't sound as bad when you say it like that. Though I'm pretty sure you didn't originally plan on _returning_ those cultural artifacts anytime soon, did you?"

Jet simply shrugged. "Nobody's perfect."

He led them through a couple hallways and empty rooms until they had reached the kitchen. It was mostly empty except for a small fridge – which was still working, surprisingly! Jet opened it and took out two water bottles, tossing one towards Sonic. There were also a couple of boxes of chocolate milk within their expiration date, but he wasn't going to take those out in front of Sonic. He still wanted to look cool in front of the hedgehog, for whatever reason.

"What are we looking for again? Gold? Gems? Your missing height?" Sonic said after a sip, looking around. He seemed to be pretty entertained by everything so far.

"I'd say the rest of your brain cells, but not even someone as talented as me can find something that doesn't exist." Jet rolled his eyes. Sonic looked the tiniest bit offended. "Anything, really. We're not sure what to do with this thing, since we don't use it anymore, so we're gonna take away anything of value to see if we get any clues."

"It looks like it's going to take quite a while, maybe I should have called Amy or Shadow to help us…"

"We won't be looking inside every room, hedgehog. I'm thinking… the bridge, the engine room and my office might have something. And the storage, of course. We should split up to take care of this faster."

"Roger that, boss!" Sonic teased, getting a huff out of Jet. "I'll go ahead and look into the storage and then your off—"

"_No_."

"Fine, geez! The storage and the _engine room_ then. I'll meet you at the office when I'm done, Flicky!"

"That's not my name stop calling me that!" Jet growled and stomped his foot at Sonic, who had already run off to explore the blimp. A sigh escaped his beak as he started heading to the bridge.

Ah, the memories! He remembered the very distinct feeling of getting bored and then coming over to ask Wave how long until they arrived at their next destination. He could almost hear Wave shouting at him for being an impatient little brat too. He walked over to the steering wheel and gave it a few spins as if he was piloting. Obviously, nothing happened. The only thing of interest in there was a small toolbox next to one of the displays, which he took with him as he walked back into the hallway.

He could hear Sonic running through the blimp, his shoes making a repetitive tapping noise loud enough for Jet to make a guess on where he was at all times. Judging on how fast he was going, either he hadn't found anything worth taking or he was being careless with Jet's precious belongings. He chose to believe in the former and proceeded to the office without stopping to check on his companion.

In truth, Jet knew there wasn't going to be anything of value inside the room besides the computer system. He still humored the thought for a bit as he looked around, but found nothing as expected. The hawk then sighed and sat on the chair by the desk, resting his head on his hands as like he used to do.

It… didn't feel the same. Maybe because all the noise that came with being inside an _active_ airship wasn't present, or because he just wasn't in the right headspace to let himself indulge in the memories anymore. Oh well, there was one last job to be done.

He just needed to log into the system, execute some commands and then all the leftover files would be sent directly to Wave's database. Since _Storm_ was the one originally tasked with that job, Wave had made a sheet containing colorful diagrams and pictures explaining everything step-by-step. Jet had no problem following those instructions, though the upload was taking a bit longer than expected since the signal inside the "garage" wasn't very good.

Meanwhile, he could feel a pair of eyes burning a hole through his skull as he waited on the upload. He had been _aggressively_ trying not to acknowledge the portrait that hung above the large window ever since he entered the room.

**Father**.

It was as if the old man was looking at him through the picture. Him and his… stupid pirate costume or whatever that outfit was supposed to be. He looked a lot like Jet, except he was taller, tougher looking and way more successful. A constant reminder that Jet had pretty much failed in everything he was raised to do. He wanted to shatter the glass to pieces and rip that picture apart, if only there wasn't a wave of anxiety coursing through his body.

Jet stood in front of the holographic computer screen for five minutes until he decided to actually do something about it. He finally turned to face the portrait. Jet had gotten just _barely_ tall enough to touch it. He could have easily reached it if he stood on the chair or even on his board, but he was too stubborn to do that.

He opted instead to stretch as much as he could. He had a weak grip on it with two of his fingers, and was struggling to actually flip the picture towards the wall. He briefly considered asking Sonic for help, but quickly shrugged the thought away. That'd only make him look even more _pathetic_.

Sonic still came, though.

"Jet, you won't believe what I found! I went in the bedrooms – don't get mad at me for that, I was just super curious – and I found some of your old stuff! There's a teddy bear that's super cute, but also super dusty so I tossed it back in the box. What are you up to?"

That made Jet let out a yelp and jumped in surprise, causing the portrait to slip out of his hands and wobble. He was already on his way to yank the box out of Sonic's hands when the sound of shattering glass echoed through the room.

He didn't feel bad at all for that old portrait, and was ready to finish it once in for all. He avoided the sharp shards and reached out to take the picture from the frame, but something else slipped and fell on his hand instead.

"Huh?"

Jet gazed over the piece of paper. It looked old, but the portrait frame had protected it from tears for the most part. The back of the paper was devoid of any writing, only marked by humidity stains. Flipping it over, however…

_Surge "__**Stolen the Fifth**__" the Hawk's ultimate treasure hunt._

That was his father's name! Some of the places in the list had been crossed out (probably by him), and some of them had already been pillaged by the (now former) Babylon Rogues. But there were still quite a few names he either had never been to or didn't recognize at all. This… this! This was the big clue, the lead he was looking for all along!

Sonic must have noticed Jet's face light up as he read the paper. The hedgehog had sneaked up on him while he was distracted, taking a peek at the paper from behind him. "What's that for?"

"Too close!" Jet squeaked and jumped away from Sonic, feeling a warmth spread across his cheeks. "Looks like my old man was hiding his failures all along. What a loser."

"You didn't need an old shopping list to confirm that. I guess now we know for sure that he's all _chirp_ and no bite, huh?"

Jet ignored just how bad that pun was and continued to prance around the room, a big grin on his face. "This is big! If I can go everywhere in here and get all of the treasures, then I can…"

"…Prove a point to your father?"

That made Jet stop on his tracks and turn to face Sonic. He didn't like being challenged, much less on something so personal as this. At least it sounded like a challenge to him. Sonic had unamusement written all over his face.

"What about it, _Sonic the Hedgehog_? I know what you're going to say, _you don't need to prove a point to anyone, Jet_. But I do."

Sonic opened and then closed his mouth. Looks like the hawk had hit the jackpot on that prediction. He crossed his arms over his chest and impatiently tapped his foot on the ground, looking around as if he was waiting for a rebuttal to pop into his mind.

"You don't know what it's like. You never will, everyone already loves you. But not me. And this is my only chance to—"

"Oh, they _love me_, Jet? Why do you think they love me?"

That caught him by surprise. He paused for a few moments before speaking up again, "Because you're all… blue and fast! And a hero! And you save the world and all that!"

"So they love the fact that they're not _dead_ yet. Doesn't sound like there's much for me in that deal."

"…You… you don't know what it's like still! You don't know what it's like to get put down your whole life as an outcast in his own family!"

"You're right about that one," Sonic uncrossed his arms, his expression softening, "but that doesn't mean I don't know what I'm talking about. Do you think your dad is going to suddenly start liking you if you get all the treasures he couldn't?"

"Yes!"

"Is he _really_ going to start liking you? _You_ specifically? Or the fact that _someone_ from his family got the treasures?"

"I…"

"You don't need to prove to a crooked old man that you're worth living, Jet. I know it's easy for me to say, since… well, I wasn't raised like that! But please, consider it for a moment."

Jet opened his beak to shout Sonic down, but… he was right. Once again. It made him feel furious, and guilty, and pitiful and… thankful? He still couldn't accept the fact that someone was helping him deal with his issues for once – much less _Sonic the Hedgehog_ out of all people.

Chaos, why was he such a _dick_?

"…I guess you're right. Sorry."

Sonic looked like he had to physically restrain himself to not make a funny remark about how that was the first time Jet had apologized to him. He simply shook his head in the end.

"It's alright, it's not your fault."

"I guess I'm gonna put this in the trash with the frame rest of the portrait, then."

"Woah, hold on!" Sonic held onto Jet's shoulder before he could move. It wasn't like there was a trash can nearby anyways, so why he did that was beyond the hawk. "I didn't say you _couldn't_ go to these places, I just said to not do it to prove a point!"

"Why else would I do this then?"

"For… for fun, of course! Don't tell me you've always done this stuff for the sake of the Babylon Rogues legacy, Jet. I've seen you smiling to yourself while you rode away with the chaos emerald."

Fun…? It… it was pretty fun yeah!

"Sure, but I don't have a crew anymore. Wave is busy being rich and famous and Storm is a dad now."

"Leave that to me! I'm willing to be your second in command if that means cheering you up. Tails can be your mechanic, though it's going to take a while to convince him. Eggman has been on the low anyways, I've been craving a trill lately." Sonic grinned. Jet still had his doubts.

"I can try to see if more people want to join us as well! The more the merrier, right? I can _maybe_ get Rouge to come and drag Shadow if they don't have anything from G.U.N. in their schedule. Amy's probably busy with her… I think she has a pastry shop now? No clue, but—"

"Why?"

"Huh? I mean, Amy is the second strongest person I know besides Knuckles, and I don't think I can make Mr. Stoic leave the master emerald because of a field trip."

"No, I meant. Why are you so hellbent on helping me?"

"That's just what heroes do, right? Help the people in need?" Sonic shrugged, resting his hands behind his head.

"And what _exactly_ do I need now?"

"Friends."

* * *

**Author's Note: College is starting /for real/ for real now and it looks like I'm gonna struggle this semester so updates are probably going to slow down quite a bit. Also I ordered Rune Factory 4 Special and it arrives on Friday soooooo I'm probably gonna devote my free time to that for a while. If everything goes right I'm gonna post another chapter before that, but it's gonna depend on how this week goes.**

**Also, thank you so much for supporting this fic! Your comments mean a lot to me and help me stay motivated while writing, so go ahead and leave some whenever you have something to say! Kudos also help if you haven't done that already.**

**I hope everyone has a wonderful day!**


	4. Therapy costs money but the tea is free

For someone making the big bucks, Wave's apartment wasn't all that luxurious. It wasn't a high-end and elites-only apartment complex, nor did she live in the penthouse or another equally expensive arrangement. It wasn't like her apartment was as cramped as Jet's of course, it occupied one fourth of the whole floor it was in.

Getting the receptionist to let him in wasn't an issue at all – they knew who Wave used to be and also who Jet currently was. The connection between the two birds was still somewhat recognized even if they had "parted ways" a couple years was more of a career and location-wise departure than anything, really.

Wave already had dozens of extreme gear related business offers by the time their criminal record was wiped. She didn't need to pay a single cent to move to Grand Metropolis, and the people there received her with open arms. The city strived to be as eco-friendly as possible, and what better way to do so than making a vehicle that literally only consumes air as fuel the default individual transportation method?

Jet's case was… another story entirely. Young, inexperienced in mostly everything and with his only (barely) marketable skill being gear racing, there wasn't much he could have done in terms of job besides become a professional racer. Most competitions took part in Monopole, but the expense of living there was more than he could afford.

The second option was Station Square, a city that had its own very small extreme gear scene and desperately needed new heroes and public figures after Perfect Chaos' attack. They offered to pay his rent for a couple of months if he picked a cheap enough apartment, and the deal was made. He ended up staying in it as opposed to moving to a new house like he had originally planned, mostly out of convenience but also because he wasn't paid _that _much.

Despite the distance, they still kept contact. If anything, it made their friendship even stronger. Now that Wave could do something with her free time other than being forced to pretty much **babysit** Jet, she was able to solve some of her personal issues and be a better person and friend to those around her. She was able to see the bond between herself and Jet as what it was always supposed to be – two good friends that helped each other mutually.

Jet… didn't have the same luck, admittedly. But hey, it was _Jet_. Did he even have feelings anyways? To everyone besides Wave and Storm, it sounded unlikely.

The hawk waited not-so-patiently until the elevator doors opened and started walking towards Wave's apartment. It wasn't hard to find and he was soon knocking on her door. The large backpack full of the airship's stray loot was starting to weigh on his back, but luckily Wave soon answered the door for him – not before shouting _"I'm coming babe!"_ from somewhere behind the door.

Wave's smile faded quickly as she noticed the person at the door was not, in fact, her babe.

She was wearing a white one shoulder crop top that matched with her white baseball cap and white and lilac striped sneakers. She also had black high waisted jeans and a black choker with her signature microcomputer fake jewel on it. Was that eyeliner? Jet made a mental note to ask her what brand that was so he could get himself some – it was rare to find one that was compatible with feathers.

"What are you doing here? It's date night and we're going to Station Square."

"Storm passed the scavenging job to me. I've got at least three stray toolb— wait you're going there? Why didn't you tell me?! Could have saved me the damn bus trip!"

"As if you're one to talk!"

Jet raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms. "What are you even talking about?"

"You know what's up. I've sent like, five different sponsorship deals to your agency? And then your staff replies saying you're not interested a **whole week** later! What kind of business strategy was that, _genius_? I've told you to consult me first before deciding on stuff like that. This could make or break both of our careers!"

"_What_." Jet thought for a moment, genuinely unaware of what she was talking about. Just then he remembered why he was so unaware. "Oh, they're making me take a break or whatever for the whole year. They didn't even run that by me, you know I'd have accepted it. You've made all my boards so far."

Wave's mild bout of anger subsided immediately after hearing that. "Are you serious? That's… wow. They're probably scheming to kick you out or something, I knew I should have invested in my own agency. Guess that's where my extra money is going this month. Why didn't you tell me that sooner?"

"Oh I was busy hanging out with Sonic."

"…_Sonic_?"

"The hedgehog." He nodded

"…Are you going to explain _any_ of that or?"

"It's kind of a long story and you told me to be quick." He lauded, then shrugged."Wait no, it's not that long. Just sorta weird."

Jet finally made his way into the apartment. Having been there quite a few times in the past, he knew exactly where to go. He knew the guest bedroom would be the perfect place to put the stuff down since nobody ever went there, but he chose to go to her room instead. It was farther away, and he felt like spending some time with Wave. Whether she liked it or not.

He crouched beside her bed and started emptying the contents of his ridiculously overfilled bag onto the floor. He wasn't kidding about the three toolboxes! Also a bunch of her old clothes, robotics experiments and some miscellaneous spare parts from here and there he thought she might still have some use for.

"I was going over to the airship but I saw Sonic on the street. I challenged him to a race but he chickened out and convinced me to sleep over at his place. We had a race that night and I dropped my board off a building, but it's not dented enough for you to worry about it."

If Jet was in the same room as Wave, he'd see that she had stopped applying the rest of her makeup to stare at nothing for a brief moment, trying to process everything Jet had just told her.

"Since when are you _that_ friendly with Sonic the Hedgehog? I mean, I know you're his self-proclaimed rival and all that but this is a bit…weird."

"What, rivals can't hang out with each other now? I want to be better than Sonic, not kill him."

"Good point but you're avoiding the question."

"I'd answer it if I knew."

Jet shrugged and walked to the living room, plopping down on one of her big soft couches. Wave was checking herself out on the living room mirror. She then sat on the couch opposite to Jet and took out her phone impatiently. He took out his own, checking out the notification from Sonic's message he hadn't gotten to replying yet.

**[Fastest Thing In The Universe]:** already started making the plans for our lil road trip u better b prepared to have tons of fun n for me to beat u 2 all the treasures

Wave could practically hear him rolling his eyes. Sonic had probably changed his name in the messaging app just to tease him.

**[HAWK]:** can you change your name so I can actually see what your message says from my notifs

**[HEDGEHOG]:** like this~?

**[HAWK]:** I'm cancelling the trip

**[BlueBlur]:** okay okay jeez flicky back 2 the usual

"Jet you've been smirking at your phone for like a full minute now."

Said smirk quickly faded as he looked up at Wave, who was staring at him with a hint of curiosity on her otherwise bored expression. At least she had forgotten about him having to get out of her apartment quickly. Jet readjusted himself, back straightening against the cushions with the faintest sound. He didn't even notice himself smirking, what was wrong with him?

Maybe… maybe Wave could tell him! He'd usually not talk about this sort of stuff with the few friends he had, but he trusted Wave would take him seriously enough.

"Hey Wave can you help me with something related to my feelings? Y'know, since you're a girl and girls are always talking about their feelings and all that."

Wave shot him a mild glare before she went back to trying to figure out just what was taking her girlfriend so long. "Jet you're a sexist prick, you know that?"

He took a deep breath. "Sorry, let me rephrase that. Hey Wave, can you help me with something related to my feelings since you have a girlfriend and you probably talked to her about your feelings at least once?"

"Sure, go ahead."

"Wait, really? That easy?"

"You're probably going to end up killing someone if I say no and you go ask for Storm's advice. So yeah, go ahead."

Jet had to admit he did plan on asking Storm if Wave ended up turning him down. It couldn't be that bad of an idea though, right? The guy was married and had a _child_. He probably had some bits of wisdom not even Wave had. And as much as both of them liked to endlessly tease Storm, he had to admit the albatross had helped him a lot with his supportive nature and go-getter attitude.

But Storm wasn't what he needed to think about right now. Jet took a minute to himself try to figure out how and what exactly he was going to bring up to Wave. The _mystery feeling_ was a prime candidate, but he had absolutely no idea how to describe it to her. It just made him feel… weird.

"Wave, what do you do when someone makes you feel…weird?"

"What are you, eight years old? You can tell me what you're feeling, I won't make fun of you for it or anything."

"I don't know what it is, that's why I'm saying it like this!" He huffed and crossed his arms, looking at nowhere in particular while he tried to find the right words.

"Like… when you hate someone, but like… In reverse? He makes me feel so… _weird_. It's just weird! I don't know what else I need to say!"

"Who are we talking about again?"

"Sonic the Hedgehog. I thought you'd caught on to that already."

Now **that** caught Wave's attention. She quickly finished typing a message on her phone and put it down, now focusing on Jet. She was leaning forwards, elbows resting on her legs and head in between her hands. Her expression was pure curiosity and a tiny hint of a smile was also creeping onto her face.

"I was distracted, sorry. I'm all ears now. Maybe you're still mad about one of the times he beat you? It'd help a lot if you could describe what you're feeling. Don't worry about making sense, just let the words out."

"I don't know, it's… warm?"

"Go on…?"

"I guess it's warm. And… it makes me feel like hanging out with Sonic. But it also kind of mad at him? Like when he does something stupid, I get angry at him for real instead of just teasing him for it. But not in a bad way, I think? It doesn't feel like I'm mad at him for being stupid, it's more like I want to see him doing better than that. Because I _know_ he can do better than that. Does this make sense? I feel like I'm not making sense."

"Oh no, don't worry, it makes perfect sense! You're not going to like what I'm about to say, though."

"What? Spit it out, it can't be that bad."

"I'm just saying, what you're describing sounds kind of similar to a cr—"

Before Wave could finish the word and make Jet let out a **"what?!**" loud enough to shatter the eardrums and windows of everyone in the building, the doorbell rang. Wave practically bolted to open the door.

"Hey babe, sorry for the wait. Boss didn't want me to borrow the private jet for our date so I had to do some bribing. You made a good call telling me to swipe the chaos emerald off them last week, you're going to get extra smooches for that."

Jet waved awkwardly at Rouge once she was done kissing the top of Wave's beak. The bat was wearing a somewhat matching outfit to her girlfriend – a frilly white crop top with a gray fitted skirt and navy-blue heels. She was also wearing golden bracelets much like Wave used to, but they looked like they were made of actual gold rather than yellow-painted scrap metal.

Jet felt a little self-conscious being the only one there not wearing a shirt nor pants. Though he did get a fancy new hair clip in the shape of a bird's head he found on a Hot Topic-like store's display. He was pretty sure it was an eagle and not a hawk, but it looked cool regardless.

"Hey."

"Oh, I didn't expect you to have company! Though I don't blame you, I did take an awful while to get here."

Wave shrugged, stepping aside to let Rouge in. The bat waited for her to sit down so she could sit besides her. "I was about to kick him out, I just had to finish telling him that he probably has a crush on Sonic."

Wave immediately sacrificed herself to cover Rouge's ears instead of her own. Though surprisingly, Jet didn't scream. He just sat there for a while looking like he was thinking really, _really_ hard. It was a full minute of silence before his expression morphed into… terror? Excruciating pain? Gay panic? Something in between.

"…For real?" Jet's voice was almost a whisper. That startled Wave more than if he was to scream.

"I mean, don't ask me! You're the one feeling all warm and bothered when you think about Sonic. You have to ask yourself why that is." She raised her hands defensively. "Uh… babe, help me out? You went to college for psychology, right?"

"Eh. We just talked about how much Freud sucked most of the time," Rouge shrugged, "but I did start looking into becoming a therapist before joining G.U.N. yeah. I can give you my own two cents if you w—"

"Cool, how do I get rid of it? I don't want to have a crush on Sonic anymore." Jet said that with a completely serious face, which made Rouge let out a little chuckle.

"Hey there, let's not be hasty. You don't even know if it _is_ a crush yet." She waved her hands dismissively. "It could be something else. Like envy, for example."

"Envy? I mean, I did use to get pretty envious of how fast Sonic is. But it's never made me feel like this before. We just raced and that was it."

"I'm just throwing stuff out there, I'm not sure either. Is there something else you might be envious of Sonic for?"

Jet thought for a moment. What did Sonic have that he didn't? The friends, the carefree life, a seemingly infinite amount of hobbies and things to do, a proper relationship with his (found) family, a handsome face and charming smile, perfect legs…

"I guess I want to be that tall too."

"We can get you some heels for that, problem solved! Didn't even need a degree for that."

"I mean… so what if it _is_ a crush," Wave interjected, "there's nothing wrong with that. You might have to go to _actual_ therapy if you have some internalized homophobia or something to work out, but otherwise it shouldn't be that big of an issue."

"Oh no, I'm not upset about crushing on another guy, it's because it's Sonic specifically." Jet lowered his face onto his palms, almost stabbing himself with his beak in the process. "I mean, Sonic? Sonic the Hedgehog? He's… y'know. He's Sonic!"

"What do you mean by that?"

"I mean, like… He's… you know what I mean, stop teasing me! I'm going home have a nice date or whatever!" Jet suddenly got up and headed out through the door.

Wave and Rouge stared at each other for a while. Neither of them knew what he meant.

"I knew I shouldn't have gotten the private jet with the DVD player, you're gonna talk about this forever now."

"You know damn well I'm right, Rouge. The Chao from Chao in Space 3 are part of a hivemind led by Space Chaos, the Nega Wisp army were only trying to liberate them! I mean, just look at all the hints they dropped for us!"

Rouge couldn't help but laugh and clutch her girlfriend's hand tighter, resting her head on her shoulder as they walked through the streets of Station Square. Wave had been there before to visit Jet, but she had never stopped to admire just how nice the atmosphere was. They had already been to Twinkle Park and dined in a fancy restaurant. They were headed off to Rouge's apartment to finish the day off with a good night of rest.

"Babe."

"I mean sure they were killing the Chao, but that's only because they sucked all the energy from the Mother Wisp and corrupted their whole fleet. It's not like they could do much at that point besides spare them from their cursed existence."

"Babe."

"If they had let Angel Chao and his squad carry out the civilian rescuing operation, they'd have realized they were the bad guys all along! And the movie doesn't even frame them as wrong in the slightest for killing all of the Wisps? How messed up is that?"

"Wave."

"WHAT?!"

"I love to hear you talking about movies like that, did you know?"

Wave closed her beak, flushing under her purple feathers. Rouge snickered and leaned in to give her a kiss on the cheek.

"I'm right and you know it." Wave pouted.

"You're almost always right."

"I'm right this time too."

"If I confirm it then you're going to stop being cute."

"Hmph."

It didn't take long before they reached Rouge's apartment. Walking from the streets and into the parking lot, the bat raised an eyebrow as she saw that one of her lights was on, if she was looking up at the right window.

She wasn't too worried about it – Shadow often hung out by her apartment when he had nothing better to do – but she thought she had made it pretty clear that she was bringing Wave over and didn't want any disturbances. Maybe he just wanted to have a chat with the two of them for some reason? Sounded unlikely, but the ultimate lifeform was a walking mystery most of the time anyways.

Her doubts were confirmed after they went up the elevator to her apartment on the second floor. Not only were the lights on but the front door was also open. That wasn't something Shadow would do, he was more careful than that. Sure enough, when she peeked into the living room she saw not one but two hedgehogs!

"—and he looked like, super depressed too! I can't just let something like that go, you understand right? Come on Shadow, you have to help me out on this one!"

"Now what do we have here?" Rouge released Wave's hand so she could cross her arms and strike a semi-convincing annoyed facial expression. "So? Who's going to explain themselves first?"

"I was planning to borrow your eyeshadow and leave as quickly as possible. Sonic kept me here because he's desperate."

"I'm not desperate! Okay, maybe a little, but— hey Wave! Maybe a little, but it's important. Rouge, help me out on this one!"

Sonic did look very desperate. He was currently holding a sheet of paper awfully close to Shadow's face – and the other looked like he was trying his best not to swat it out of his hands.

He then turned around in a blur and stood in front Rouge. His smile looked a little bit forced. Wave stood awkwardly in the corner as both girls finally made their way inside.

She peaked at the paper now in Rouge's hands. It looked like… a schedule of sorts? There was a table with dates and locations, and simplistic drawings of Sonic's friends inside some of the cells. It looked rushed and barely readable, just like what Jet used to make her decipher.

"This is in crayon." That managed to break Rouge's façade, a smile creeping onto her face before she burst into a fit of giggles.

"I know, don't mention it! I was already half way here when I realized the first version was bad and the closest place was Cream's house and she only had crayons. But that's not the point! The point is—"

"Slow down, big blue! Take a breath first, then explain to me what's going on. But don't drag it for too long, okay? Me and my lovely girlfriend need to go to bed soon."

Sonic rolled his eyes but ultimately took her advice, breathing in and out extra loudly just for the dramatic effect.

"Okay so… uh, I met with Jet recently and he was kind of weird, and I'm kind of organizing a road trip to cheer him up. He found some old treasure hunt list from his dad so we're using that as our travel guide."

"Weird how?" Wave chimed in.

"Like… not there at all? Not _Jet_? He only taunted me for like five minutes in total instead of hours!"

She had to admit, that **was** pretty weird. Both her and Rouge now knew _why_ he might have been acting weird, but of course they wouldn't tell Sonic about it.

Besides, that's not really how a crush is supposed to work. Wave was pretty sure there were some other issues Jet wasn't telling her about, intentionally or not. She'd have to question him about it… eventually.

"So you're going to cramp everyone into a car just to cheer up Jet?" Rouge raised an eyebrow, unamused.

"Not in a car, in the Babylon Rogues' airship! I mean, uh… I was going to ask for Wave's permission first, of course. We might have to modify it a tiny bit." Sonic nodded. "And so, not everyone at a time. I know there's not that many bedrooms in there, so I made a schedule! And then remade it with Cream's crayons!"

"Blue, I'm going to say this in the nicest way possible," Rouge put a hand on his shoulder, "why do _we_ have to go too? I'm sure you can cheer up Jet on your own. You have a talent for that kind of thing."

"I mean, yeah! But this isn't like… cheering up, this is more like… I don't know! Jet feels like he needs to get out there and meet new people and—"

"Did he tell you that?" Everyone turned to face Shadow, who somehow kept silent this whole time.

"No, but…"

"We've talked about this before, Sonic. You're a hero, you can do good in many ways. But you're not a _therapist_. You don't even know what the issue is. Jet could just have a cold for all you know."

"I know, but… but…!"

"Since when do you care about Jet so much anyways? I remember you telling me you found him quite annoying."

"That was years ago, dude! Jet is different now, he's… well, he hasn't changed a lot since then actually, but you have to believe me that he's a nice guy! I just… I think Jet deserves better than this, you know? He just has a different vibe to him now, you know?"

"I don't, actually. I've never talked to him."

Sonic groaned and brought a palm up to his face in frustration. "I just… feel like staying next to him, even if that doesn't help a lot with his issues. It's the least I can do. I haven't been able to stop thinking about him ever since he slept over and I think I'm gonna go crazy if I don't have this trip. It's stupid, I know, but…"

Rouge and Wave turned to look at each other, and both of them immediately knew they were onto something they probably shouldn't be. Shadow wasn't in on the gossip, but he could at least tell Rouge was and that she was about to pull him out of the room to talk about it.

"Sounds like you're just trying to do a nice thing, that's innocent enough." Rouge finally said, pointing at Shadow. "I need to have a word with Hot Topic outside for a moment. You go ahead and tell Wave how you're going to destroy her airship."

"Will do! I mean, I'll try not to!" He let out a nervous chuckle. Rouge and Shadow quickly left the room and went deep into the hallway. Sonic and Wave looked at each other with a fair bit of awkwardness in their eyes.

Neither of them knew the other very well, but both had spent enough time with Jet to know that this was probably a bad idea.


	5. Tranquil

"Remind me again how your _very elaborate and functional_ schedule works?"

"Nope!"

"Can you at least tell me why we're on babysitter duty?"

Jet's feathers blew softly with the wind, though his ponytail made sure they stayed out of his very unamused-looking face. He made a good call bringing his new dark green bomber jacket and gloves, seeing as how the day was somewhat chilly so far. The weather report said it would only last for the morning, but Jet insisted on packing half his bag with warm clothes anyways.

Cream and Charmy seemed to be more mindful of their clothing choices. Cream was wearing her usual orange dress and shoes, though she also had on shorts, knee-high socks and an additional vest that could be easily removed, as well as a matching orange and yellow visor. Charmy had a brown aviator jacket over a short-sleeved shirt, his usual goggles and… still no pants. Not that it was that unusual for mobians not to wear pants (Jet himself had no pants on), Sonic just found it funny that the bee never put any on no matter the occasion.

And then there were Sonic, Tails and Wave, who didn't make an effort to put something nice on. Wave had her usual white tube top and pants on, while the other two were only decked in gloves and shoes. How they didn't get cold, Jet doesn't know, but that was the least of his concerns at the moment. His number one concern was getting the very heavy bags of groceries he was carrying out of his hands and inside the airship as soon as possible. Oh how he missed Storm.

"It's the new airship's test flight, and I owed Vanilla a favor for breaking into her house and borrowing Cream's crayons without asking. We're going to be swapping crew members pretty much every day, but I thought it'd be cool to let them be the first ones. What do you think, guys?"

"Hell yeah!"

"Woah, language!" Sonic immediately covered Tails' ears as Charmy exclaimed that, earning an annoyed grunt from the fox.

"Vector lets me say curse words, it's okay." Charmy boasted.

"Then fuck yeah little buddy! Wait, does Vanilla even let you _hear_ curse words, Cream?"

"She's not here right now. Thank you so much for inviting us here, mister Sonic."

Tails pulled himself out of Sonic's grasp at last, tidying his fur. "I can say curse words too, I'm older than Charmy!"

"Hm… you get three for the entire trip." Sonic made a "how does that sound?" gesture with her arms.

"Well fuck you too then."

Tails and Charmy high-fived. Sonic looked exasperated for a brief moment, but then nodded to himself as if agreeing that was a good use of his limited curse words. Jet rolled his eyes, deeply unamused by the whole conversation.

"Wave, the ramp. _Please_."

Wave didn't look like she was paying much attention to anything besides her phone – probably texting Rouge if he had to guess. He watched as she took the airship's remote out of her pocket and pressed the button to lower the ramp. Jet noted the process was much quicker than what he remembered, even the ramp itself was lacking its signature rust.

"You and Tails really did a number on the old blimp, huh?"

"We didn't even need to go that crazy on the tech. This thing was made almost a century ago, pretty much all the parts have a more efficient and compact updated version. Putting them together was a bit trickier, but fox boy over there has plenty of experience with planes and the sort."

"Cool, cool. Tell me the details after we take off, my fingers are going numb."

Jet hushed inside as soon as the ramp stopped. That was… completely different from a week ago! Even though he was expecting some changes due to the gondola being quite a bit larger than he remembered it, he was still surprised by how much more spacious and open the interior was. It wasn't a maze of metallic tunnels anymore, but rather a large open corridor that branched into a multitude of rooms. Everything of importance was now located inside the main structure, and the outside parts of the ship were turned into a sort of semi-covered sightseeing area.

The one thing about the gentrification of the airship Jet didn't mind was that now each room was properly labeled with cute little signs. It saved him a couple minutes of walking around looking for the kitchen – which was also much neater and compliant with food safety regulations.

With the groceries stocked and his hands no longer under strain, he went ahead to look at the bedrooms. There were three of them in total, each with a double bunk bed, a desk and a restroom. There used to be four, but it looked like one of them was repurposed into a small bathroom with a shower. Jet was about to enter one of the bedrooms at random before he was pulled away from the door by a gloved hand.

"Woah woah, calm down! We still have to decide the room pairs!" Sonic turned him around so he could face the rest of the crew. He looked around somewhat nervously.

"…Wave?"

"Cream wants me to stay in the same room as her so I can teach her redstone."

"Since when do you know how to play Minecraft?"

"I don't, but I've taken a look at it and it looks like a simplified version of logic circuits. I was just going to hook her up with a Boolean logic calculator and some gate diagrams, but she insisted I w—"

"Shut up, I've heard enough." Jet rolled his eyes at Wave's shrug, turning his attention to Charmy. "Bee…kid? Don't tell me Tails is going to stay with you to teach you how to play Fortnite or whatever."

"What? Fortnite is like a last year meme, dude. Tails is gonna teach me how to set up an Arduino."

"I've never felt so old."

"Come on, Flicky, do you really want to avoid being in the same room as me that bad?" Sonic gave him a smirk and a small pat on the back, which caused him to shiver. He knew that was going to end up happening.

"Yes."

"Us jocks have to stick together, y'know? Let these nerds mess with their circuits or whatever all they want, we're going to be having the real fun!" Before anyone could comment on how _weird_ that sentence sounded, Sonic took his bag off his back and set it on the ground. He unzipped the front opening and took out a small pile of board games.

"Look, this version of _Guess Who?_ has me in it! Isn't that cool? I'm like, the only blue one in here so it's sort of an instant loss if you end up with me, but that only makes it even more exciting."

Jet took a deep breath, and pretty much everyone there took a step back expecting him to shout at Sonic. Instead, he kept his voice low but with more than a hint of annoyance.

"Do I need to remind you why we're here? We're here to gather up the last remains of the Babylonian civilization so I can have some closure with the ancestors I'm thoroughly embarrassing each second that passes. That's why _I'm_ here anyways, I don't know what you guys are doing here."

A knot formed inside Jet's stomach once he noticed Sonic's excited expression slowly fade into a frown. Everyone else had stopped playing and joking too, but he didn't care that much about them. Not until he realized he didn't, at least. He started feeling extra bad once he noticed he was ignoring everyone else that had come to support him in favor of shutting the hedgehog's annoying (yet harmless) attitude down.

Everyone remained there in silence for a few moments, until Jet himself turned around to walk towards the control room. "Gonna start the ship. Retreat the ramp, close the doors and sit down somewhere."

He was quick to get away from the sad silence he had caused, climbing a short ladder so he could reach the platform the control panel was located at. Like everything else, it was more modern and less spacious than before – but the layout fortunately remained the same. The airship's control panel was one of the few advanced machines he had learned how to deal with, and he didn't want even more of his usefulness to be taken away.

Jet braced himself for the ear-splitting noise the old engines used to make, but all he got in response to his button presses and lever flips was a low-pitched hum. The airship leaned upwards once the takeoff sequence began, though luckily everyone was already holding tight in their seats. The ship straightened out once more once it had reached a suitable altitude.

He leaned forward into the control panel resting his head in between his crossed arms. Why couldn't he just stop being a prick once he acknowledged the fact that he was being one? That was how it was supposed to work, right? Sure, he wasn't trying as hard as he could and he didn't stop to think before saying anything, but…

Oh, that was probably it.

He raised his head up to look at the sky in front of him through the large window. Autopilot had already taken over for him, so he could dedicate himself to stare at the sea of clouds while he reflected on his behavior. Being a good person was so hard, he had no clue how Sonic did it.

Sonic… Of course, all his thoughts eventually led back to Sonic. That _stupid_ blue hedgehog that wouldn't leave his head no matter how hard he tried. Jet loathed him – and for no good reason. Maybe Rouge was right and it was all just envy. He couldn't deny there _was_ some envy involved, but he didn't know if it was really what was causing his mental state to go wild.

Jet just hoped it wasn't really a crush. He was doing a terrible job of making Sonic want to be with him.

He couldn't just take that back now, couldn't he? He couldn't just gather everyone and say, "I was kidding guys I'm here to have fun with you on this silly little cruise!". That would be lying to everyone including himself, and he was a terrible liar. He could just shift his attitude without commenting on it, which was easier said than done. That would mean he'd need to… _actually think about the consequences his actions had on other people_. How crazy was that? Jet could never.

The **old** Jet could never. When they first stumbled into the topic, Jet wasn't too sure that was actually a thing. He didn't change at all from his fourteen-year-old self, _everything els_e changed around him. But that didn't mean there wasn't still room for change! Jet uncurled from his feathery little ball of pity and struck a pose to no one in particular. That was it! He would turn himself into a new Jet, and… figure what his deal with Sonic was along the way. Now, if only there was an easy first opportunity to prove he was capable of being a good person if he really tried…

Conveniently enough, the easy first opportunity gently tugged his tail and stepped away so as to not get hit by it when he turned around in surprise.

"Um… mister Jet?" Cream was holding something behind her back, but Jet couldn't make out what exactly it was. "Are you busy?"

"Nah." That… came out a little weird, but it was the least aggressive way of saying that he could think of. "What's up?"

"You're good with extreme gear, right?" She asked, a tiny smile on her face. Jet had to scoff a little.

"You could say that, yeah. Though I have no clue about how they work, you should go talk to Wave if that's what you need."

"Oh no, it's nothing like that!" Cream finally revealed what she was carrying: a pair of extreme gear skates! The orange and yellow color matched the rest of her outfit, and the soles were reinforced to allow the wearer to grind on rails.

"My mom bought these for me thinking they were regular skates. She said they're too fast and dangerous and told me not to use them on my own before I could get a teacher. I was wondering if you could… teach me?"

"Me? Hah, I'm the best extreme gear rider in the whole world! Of course I can! We took off already though, it's gonna have to wait until our next stop. Should be tomorrow at best. Not enough space in here for that."

"Oh no, that's not an issue! I asked Wave about it and she said there's an empty room we could use. Here, I'll take you there." Cream casually grabbed Jet's hand (he didn't mind) and set out for said room.

She waved at Charmy and Tails as they passed through the main hall. Jet felt a little bad seeing Sonic wasn't there with him, but he shook it off. He was probably unpacking his bags or running around or eating all the groceries. Nothing he needed to worry about probably. _Hopefully_.

Their destination was a hatch located right by the airship's entrance. Cream went ahead and went down first after opening it for them. Jet had no idea something like that could fit even the new airship! It was a mostly empty chamber mirroring the shape of the living space above them. There was a set of grind rails distributed along the thick padded walls, as well as an air pit at the end of the room.

"Since when has the entire World Grand Prix been in my blimp?"

"Tails told me he was the one who came up with the idea! Wave was skeptical it'd work at first, but… well, now she's skeptical it was worth it. But she admitted it was a job well done at least."

"Sounds like Wave." He muttered to himself, realizing he had left his board in the kitchen with the groceries and the rest of his things. Oh well. "Show me what you know, I guess. Boards are my thing, but I've used skates for some time as well. Beats bikes by a longshot, never get one of those. Also never use the air pit if you can afford it, always do tricks or grind instead."

Cream sat on the floor so she could put the skates on. The electronic components lit up and started emitting a high-pitched hum as the air coursed through the gear. Jet helped her get up and she was soon dashing through the room. She visibly lost balance here and there but never actually fell. Her technique was pretty solid overall, Jet was a little clueless on what exactly she needed to be taught.

"I mean, you didn't fall. That's pretty good if you're really just starting to learn, I guess."

"Thanks, mister Jet!" She gave him a smile and slowly made her way up to him. "But that's not good enough for me. I want to go fast, like you do on TV. I've talked to Wave and she said it's not the gear's fault I'm going too slow."

"Hmmm…" Jet raised a hand to his beak, thinking. "Do another lap around the room. I'll see if I can spot anything."

Cream nodded and went at it again. Jet now paid close attention to her movements, trying to recall everything he had learned in the short time he practiced with gear skates. They consumed the least fuel of all the types of gear, but their default speed was also the slowest. Well-timed boost usage and air recoveries were the big things to have in mind with that kind of gear, as well as good body movements and smaller stances to maximize one's aerodynamics. Cream lacked… pretty much all of those. Now, to say that in a nice way…

"Okay, okay, I've seen enough." He waved at Cream, who diverted her lap so she could come directly to him. "Well, for starters, you're only boosting at the start of each lap. You should be boosting pretty much every time except right before curves and when your air is low."

"Is that so?" Cream tilted her head sideways slightly. "How do I figure out when it's low enough, though? Besides the beeping when it's about to run out."

"You just have to get a feel for it. Count how many times you can boost from a full air tank, then how many times you can boost after a second of grinding and drifting. You have to do the math in your head to figure out how much air you have in your gear at all times."

"I never thought extreme gear was so deep! Not to say that I'm not enjoying it so far, I really am, there's just more to it than I was expecting." She gave him a sheepish smile, rubbing the back of her neck.

"Mhm! That's what extreme gear racing is at its most basic level," he smirked, glad to be able to teach someone while flaunting his knowledge, "it's a resource management game."

"I think I get it now!" Cream nodded excitedly.

"You're on the right track. There's some details that are going to make you go much faster, but you have to nail down the basics first."

"Thank you so much for helping me out, mister Jet! I hope I can get as good as you some day."

"I doubt it." He scoffed. "But you can get as good as the second best racer, so you can still be the number one eventually either way."

That didn't come out very nice, but he was glad Cream was still able to get a laugh out of it.

Jet sat by the corner of the room and continued to watch her have a go at it, shouting advice and suggestions at her every once in a while. Sure enough, after a few hours of practice he didn't even need to chime in anymore. Her form was still far from perfect, but it was still very viable. She could probably steamroll all the championships in her age range and even some of the bottom racers on the global lineup. For any further improvement, she'd have to get help from someone who specialized in racing with gear skates and could teach her all their nuances. But this was a very good start for her career!

That is, if she even _wanted_ to pursue it as a career of course. He imagined it would still be very fun for her to beat all the other twelve year olds in a casual setting as well. Or even just race on her own to push her urban maneuvering capabilities even further. The possibilities were endless, extreme gear riding was just fun no matter the context!

Chaos, how many hours had it been? It only felt like maybe one or two, but checking his phone revealed six whole hours had passed. Cream only took a couple of small water breaks, her impressive endurance also helped Jet lose his sense of time. In fact, they only realized it was probably time to stop for the day when Tails came to pretty much drag Jet to the kitchen.

"Wave told me you used to cook for the Rogues, so I need you to help me. I've never cooked for this many people before, only Sonic and maybe Shadow."

"You can cook? I thought you two just ordered takeout every day."

"Yeah, I cook! Why is that so surprising?" The fox raised an eyebrow, walking alongside Jet towards the kitchen.

"I dunno, you're a nerd. Nerds don't cook." He shrugged.

"I mean, cooking is pretty similar to chemistry, or programming, or whatever _nerd activity_ you want to use for the metaphor. Just get the right components and follow the instructions, it's as simple as that."

"Clever, but I'm still teasing you for it."

They bumped into Sonic along the way and he looked… fine! His mood didn't seem to drop at all after seeing Jet, so that was a good sign at least. He had suggested they make some chilli dogs for dinner, but they decided against it (after Sonic was already gone). Getting sick hundreds of feet in the air wasn't something they wished upon anyone, especially since it was their first day of traveling. It was better to reduce the chances of that happening by cooking something light.

Tails was in charge of preparing the mac and cheese itself, while Jet was in charge of preparing the spices as well as making a side dish. The two got a pretty good flow soon enough! Tails had almost as much brains as Wave had, and didn't shout nearly as much as him. The only time he did shout at Jet was for almost putting "too much" paprika into the mix. He pretended to settle for Tails' preferred amount, but put the rest of the paprika in when the fox wasn't looking.

It was pretty obvious what he had done, since the mac and cheese turned out _much_ redder than it was supposed to be. Tails just glared at him for a short while before doing a taste test. Not bad! Jet had also made a simple salad in the meantime, so they could say they had salad (didn't need to say whether they ate it or not!) in case Vanilla asked if they were eating healthy.

The dinner went without a hitch. The room initially went silent when Jet and Tails arrived, but the conversation soon became livelier than ever when they revealed the dinner. Everyone seemed to enjoy it – especially Sonic. He and Jet even traded taunts and jabbed at one another as if nothing had happened earlier. Maybe nothing did happen earlier and he was just blowing the situation out of proportion, who knows! Jet didn't want to think about that, he was having **fun** for once.

* * *

"Is your person Sonic?"

"No, is yours?"

"No, we can play this round."

After a quick shower, everyone said goodnight to each other and retreated into their rooms. Jet's heart skipped a beat once he remembered he'd have to spend every night of the trip in the same room as Sonic, but his worries quickly dissolved when the hedgehog brought out the board games yet again.

Much like their racing score, they were evenly tied in their hundreds of matches of "Guess Who?". They had only been playing for about an hour or so, but matches tended to end pretty quickly due to how poorly thought out that particular edition of the game was. A simple "is your person a mobian" already eliminated half the possibilities, and like previously brought up, ending up with Sonic as your selected person was pretty much an insta-loss.

But it was fun! At least Jet was having fun. It was nice to settle down and have some friendly competition that didn't involve dashing through the landscape at hundreds of miles per hour. Sure, it wasn't nearly as deep or… well, fun, but it was still a pretty good time.

Although it was quiet. Way too quiet for Jet's liking. Of course, both of them were asking the standard game questions and taunting at each other incessantly during the game, but the noise of the wind rushing beside their ears wasn't there. Only the quiet hum of the airship's new engines – which Jet had found out were powered by Tails' chaos emerald by default. It gave him way too much time to think.

Sonic was right there in front of him, and oh boy did he feel…warm. When he was up close and personal with Sonic like that, the mystery feeling that tormented him oh so much didn't feel at all like envy. He didn't want Sonic gone, quite the contrary. He wished their "Guess Who?" binging would never end. He wanted to take Sonic outside and quietly watch the night sky with him, but that would be a pretty dead giveaway something was _up_ with him. The small window in their shared bedroom would have to do.

"Hey," Jet leaned backwards on the crappy plastic chair, pushing the board away from him and towards Sonic as to say he wanted to take a small break, "can I ask you something?"

"Tired of losing? Sure, lay it on me Flicky."

Jet's reaction to the nickname was now a mere furrowing of his eyebrows. "It's about fans. Y'know, since you're famous and all that. How do you deal with the more annoying ones?"

"Huh? Depends what you mean by annoying," Sonic shrugged, "but the last one I've really had an issue with was Amy."

"Amy? The pink hedgehog that was with you at the world grand prix and the ark of the cosmos thing? She sounded pretty annoying, yeah." Jet shrugged.

"Yeah, she _was_. But we've talked it through thankfully." Sonic rubbed his gloved hands softly, reminiscing of the times she dragged him off somewhere to yell at him. "All that stuff about pretending to be my girlfriend was… well, it was more like she was trying to convince herself of it than me."

Jet raised an eyebrow in confusion, so Sonic continued, "Like you know, the whole societal pressure of finding a partner and all that. It hit Amy particularly hard, and since I was the person she looked up to the most she sorta tried to make do with me. Even after there was nobody pressuring her anymore, she still kept at it so she could feel… _complete_, I guess?"

"Oh. Wow." Jet didn't expect it to get so deep. "I'm… glad she's figured herself out, yeah."

"It's still in progress, but she's not doing anything as extreme as what you saw at the world grand prix. It's… actually fun to hang out with her now! If anything, her being clingy made me want to hang out with her more! Not in a _I miss her nagging_ _me_ way, more like… she's actually fun to be around now, you know?"

"Yeah, I know." Jet nodded, instinctively moving his hand to flip over the Sonic portrait on his board. He was taking notes in his mind.

"Anyways! Geez, I monologued again. I don't know what's with you that makes me want to run my mouth off. What's the fan that's troubling you like? Anything like Amy?" Sonic leaned forwards with his elbows on the small desk, looking up at Jet curiously.

"Not really, it's not that extreme. They're… well, I'm not sure if I can really call them a fan. They cheer for me most of the time, but it feels like they're still unsure whether they're my fan or not. Like they're… embarrassed by it almost?"

"Hm… I mean, if your job was something like a pop singer, there'd be a real reason to be embarrassed about being your fan. A stupid reason, but an understandable one. But extreme gear racing is like… a hobby that's for all ages and kinds of people, so I don't know what they're on about."

"Yeah, me neither. It's not like they cheer for other racers either, so I don't know what's wrong with them." Jet let out a sigh.

"Maybe they have some other issues to work out before they fully commit to cheering for you." Sonic brought up. Jet thought about it for a moment, averting his gaze towards the small window to the starry sky outside.

"I'm sure they do."

* * *

Author's note: Just a quick disclaimer. The Amy behavior explanation was inspired by the version of Amy from the fic "Sonic and the Green Eyed Monster" by supafroot (go check it out, it's on Ao3 only). I'm not trying to plagiarize them or anything like that, and I'm willing to change it if it's too similar. I just think it's a neat explanation that doesn't reduce Amy's behavior to "silly Amy was abusive because that's just how teenage girls are". I'm not going in depth about her growing out of that behavior, for that you should... probably read to a fic by supafroot themselves, if they ever release one.


	6. Marble Garble

The soft morning glow shone through the open curtains of the airship's bedroom, gently bathing Jet's face with its warmth. It took a few seconds for him to wake from his slumber, and he tumbled off the top bunk bed because he forgot where he was for a moment. The pain was enough to fully awaken him though, and the first thing he did after he picked himself up was to look at the bottom bunk.

Sonic wasn't there anymore, nor were shoes his shoes by the desk. Either Jet had overslept, or Sonic had gotten up extra early to coordinate the next part of the trip together with Tails. According to his phone he retrieved from inside his jacket pocket, it was 10 AM already – so both possibilities could be correct at once.

Jet gently caressed his warming cheeks as he was reminded of the events of the previous night. The two speedsters proceeded with their game session for another hour or so after their little talk about _fans_. They then headed out to their respective beds (they fought over who'd take the top bunk, of course) and stayed awake for a few more moments while chatting about nothing in particular. Jet didn't remember it being particularly interesting, but thinking about it in hindsight made him feel **warm**. He liked spending time with Sonic, that much he could admit.

And he wouldn't be able to spend time with Sonic if he stayed inside his room all day! Like the weather report predicted, it wasn't hot enough for a jacket that day, so he only put on his shoes and gloves as well as strapping his goggles to his forehead. He'd need at least two cups of coffee to make sure he's awake enough not to embarrass himself in front of Sonic. Off to the kitchen!

Or not. His plans came to a halt as bumped into someone while he was stepping out of the room. At first he thought it was the blue blur himself, since he felt flexible quills gently poke his beak and quickly closed his eyes. But as he reopened them, it was pretty obvious he had the wrong hedgehog in mind. Sonic wasn't _pink_. Or the same height as him (unfortunately). Jet tried to scan his memories for someone that matched with those traits until the person in question turned to face him with a small gasp.

"Oh, excuse me! Are you hurt? I didn't get out of the way fast enough, I was distracted."

…Amy? The name felt right in his mind. How convenient was it that she just so happened to show up on his ship the day after they bring her up in conversation? If Jet didn't know any better, he'd guess Sonic had been setting this up all along. He would have to take a look at the blue hedgehog's schedule in greater detail, he knew where they were going but not who they were bringing along.

"…'s fine."

It had been ages since he'd last seen Amy, way back to the whole ark of the cosmos situation. It was a good thing she hadn't changed much in appearance – same red dress and all that – otherwise it'd have been too much for Jet's morning brain to deal with. Though it wasn't like he knew much about Amy. All he knew was that she used to be obsessed with Sonic…and now she's not. So, it wasn't like he knew _anything_ about Amy anymore.

The pink hedgehog's polite smile was starting to get replaced by a confused expression, probably because of his slower than usual response times and lack of snark. He raised a hand to scratch the back of his head as he thought about how to continue and eventually end the conversation. His stomach was telling him to hurry up, but his brain was telling him to be polite and make a good first…third impression.

"Ever been to Marble Zone before?"

"Nope, it's my first time! Is it as interesting as Sonic is making it out to be?"

"I dunno, never been there either. If anything, Sonic's going to be the only interesting thing there…" Jet only realized what he'd said once it had already come out of his mouth.

"You know what they say, you have to make your own fun when it comes to stuff like that!" Amy let out a chuckle, covering her mouth with her hands. There was a brief flash of intimidation in her expression. Did she… think he was trying to make fun of her?

"Mhm. Hey, you…" Jet hesitated, trailing off as he realized how dumb of an idea asking her for advice on how to befriend Sonic was. "…Know if Wave is still around."

"Huh? Oh yeah, she's sitting by the… I guess that's a living room? The one under the control platform." Amy tilted her head slightly. "She almost didn't recognize me, can you believe that?"

"You're lucky she even looked at you, she's been glued to her phone the whole trip. Chatting with Rouge and all that."

"Rouge told me they were dating now yeah! I'm happy for them, they seem like they complement each other pretty well. Don't you think so too?"

"She's pretty much the only one capable of making Wave shut up, that's already pretty damn impressive. They look happy when they're with each other, I'm glad for that. I don't know and don't want to know about the details of their private lives." Jet shrugged.

"That's for the best, half of Rouge's private life is classified information anyways." Amy snickered, breaking eye contact to look around. "Have you seen Cream? I've looked all around the ship but I haven't found her anywhere…"

"Oh, she's probably practicing with her extreme gear. You just go down there," Jet pointed at the hatch by the end of the hall, "and be careful so she doesn't run you over. She's getting better at picking up speed."

"Cream has extreme gear now too? Did you have a hand in this?" Amy shot him a harmless yet teasing look. He raised his hands defensively in response.

"I just helped her get better at it, I didn't make her buy the gear or anything. If I did then I'd have made her get a Babylon Standard one. Wave wouldn't let me hear the end of it otherwise."

"Okay okay, just making sure. Cream never told me she was interested in that sort of stuff, it's kind of surprising! Then again, she's come with us on adventures out of her own will and against her mother's wishes in the past, so it shouldn't be that surprising…"

Jet shrugged again, ready to go grab some breakfast. Amy noticed him slowly trailing off and gently grabbed him by his wrist. "Gently" maybe wasn't the best word to describe it, but his bones were still intact.

"Hey! So, um… I don't want to be nosy, but what's the deal between you and Sonic anyways? You're like, all buddy-buddy with each other now? When did that happen?"

"What, you jealous?" Jet couldn't resist letting that one out, a slight smirk on his face.

"What? No! That's not it!" Amy pouted, a faint blush spreading across her muzzle. "I just… you know, curious. You two used to barely talk and even hate each other at one point. It's probably because I haven't seen you in so long, but this just feels… unfamiliar to me."

Jet figured she was being genuine, so he decided to open up to her a tiny bit. "I dunno either, to be honest. But I like it. Just… don't tell Sonic I said that to you or he'll never shut up about it."

Amy's smile extended into a sort of mischievous grin as she released his wrist. "Oh! Don't worry about it, your secret is safe with me. I didn't realize it was _like that_ at all, I'm really surprised right now. But don't let me keep you from your **lover** any further!"

It took him a couple of seconds to realize what she was implying, and she was already at the end of the hall when he started shouting about how all of this was just a misunderstanding and "not _like that_ at all!". She simply giggled in response and climbed down the ladder to the makeshift gear practice room, keeping eye contact with him until she closed the hatch above her.

If it wasn't for her (questionable) promise, he'd have put something heavy over the hatch so she and his secret would never be able to leave. Not without her breaking through the walls of the airship, at least. Which was a possibility, unfortunately. Jet knew pretty well the absurd amount of physical strength she was able to put out – strong enough to knock out Storm in fact! But that was besides the point. The point was… he needed to grab his coffee already before something else could make him panic.

Luckily for him, there was still plenty left in the kitchen. He chugged the first cup as fast as he could, and decided to actually savor the second and drink it while he walked towards the so-called living room. It was a large open space right next to the control platform, with four comfy looking couches positioned in an X formation. He could see Wave on her phone as he approached, and decided to sit on the couch opposite to hers. He was in the middle of sipping his coffee when she spoke up, surprising him.

"We're set to arrive in like five minutes, you should get ready."

"I'm ready, I just have to get my board. Are _you_ ready?"

"I've never been more ready in my life." She joked, finally putting her phone down to face Jet. "What was all that shouting in the hall about, by the way?"

Jet closed his beak and looked away when he noticed Wave was raising her eyebrow at him. "Weh."

"Just spit it out, I don't want you being a dick to people for no reason. I'll be out of the crew for a couple of days starting tomorrow so I can only do so much damage control, you know."

"Fine, geez! You're so annoying! It's just that," Jet lowered his voice, "she…she's onto me."

"Huh?"

"You know, about the… the thing? The situation. The _issue_." Jet gestured vaguely towards his surroundings. It took a couple of seconds for Wave to finally catch on to what the heck he was talking about.

"Oh, that was it? I mean, I don't blame her. You make it too easy." Wave scoffed at him, picking her phone back up. "Amy is trustworthy, she won't tell anyone about your crush."

"IT'S NOT A— wait, how do _you_ know she's trustworthy? You don't talk to Amy." He raised an eyebrow.

"Cream told me, duh. What, now you don't trust _me_?"

"That's not it! I…I'm sorry." That made Wave's eyes widen.

"Chaos, this is worse than I thought. You know you're going to have to talk to Sonic himself about it sooner or later, right?"

"Absolutely not, have a terrible day." Jet huffed and got up right in time for Sonic's voice to ring across the intercom speakers – the ones nobody had told him about, of course.

"_Attention, this your captain speaking—"_

"I'm the captain!" Jet shouted loud enough for Sonic to hear him from whenever he was broadcasting the message from.

"_Fine, this is your co-captain speaking. We have arrived at our destination – Marble Zone – and will be landing shortly. Once we do, grab your things and head for the exit. Copy. Or was it over? Tails, what do they say when they finish giving out announcements on airpl—"_

The broadcast as cut short – possibly by Tails himself. Jet sat back down in preparation for the landing, which was fairly uneventful compared to what used to happen when _he_ was the one piloting. The airship shook and rumbled for a short while before making contact with the grass, and the exit ramp was lowered shortly after.

Both Jet and Wave popped out of their seats and headed for the exit. Amy and Cream came out of the hatched, with the former giving him a teasing glare before walking out. Tails and Sonic walked out of what he assumed was the engine room and went straight outside. They were the last to exit as Jet had to make a quick trip to his room to retrieve his extreme gear. Wave used her remote to close the ramp behind them once they stepped foot outside.

This place was… _something else_, Jet thought. They were standing on top of a large grassy field that waved softly with the wind. Marble structures were present pretty much anywhere he looked, ornate and beautiful yet strong enough to resist the elements for ages. Lakes of lava also adorned the landscape and made the air hot yet not unbearable. Mechanical, repetitive sounds could be heard coming from the pathways etched into the hills leading to unknown underground wonders.

Everyone else also seemed pretty amazed with how beautiful the place looked – even Wave had stopped to admire the scenery! The only one that didn't seem all that impressed was Sonic himself. Instead he had some sort of nostalgic look on his face, matched with a small smile. Jet could swear he had seen the hedgehog wipe a tear for a brief moment, but teasing him about it wouldn't be nice. And he was supposed to be nice now!

"Whew, this brings me back. Way less badniks than I remember though, but it's for the best." Sonic then turned to face everyone, bringing his hands together with a small clap. "Alright! What's the plan?"

Everyone looked at Sonic with mixed expressions of confusion and surprise. It was a whole five seconds before Jet spoke up to voice what everyone else was thinking. "We thought you'd be the one making a plan. Since you're organizing everything else."

"What? Pfft, that's ridiculous. But uh… I can do that now, I guess! Tails, Wave? Do any of you have like… a radar or something that shows which of these caves lead to the treasure?"

Both geniuses shook their heads in disagreement. Sonic's eyebrows furrowed and he raised a hand to stroke his chin in thought. "Alright, then… How about we just go for it? We form teams and the one that finds the treasure first washes the dishes for today."

Everyone replied in agreement, and so Sonic continued. "Right, we could have… two teams with three people! Jet and Wave should be in different teams, since they're the ones that know how this usually goes. Any takers yet?"

"I want to be in the same team as Jet!" Amy suddenly chimed in, surprising pretty much everyone. She stepped besides the hawk and grabbed his arm.

Jet had previously wanted Sonic on his team but now the situation was the complete opposite. Even if Amy did intend to keep her promise, he still had a bad feeling about the situation. He stepped out of Amy's grip and stood behind Cream. "We're a team, then! Speed, power and… uh, can you fly somehow?"

"I can fly using my ears, yeah!" Cream nodded and smiled.

"What, really? That's weird, but whatever. We're officially the most balanced team there is! Have fun trying to make your two nerds get past the first jump over lava." He pointed right at Sonic. "Whenever you losers are ready!"

"We're always ready, Flicky. But there's one last thing." Sonic walked up to Jet and handed him what looked like a small walkie-talkie. How old-school. "So we can let each other know when we found something interesting."

"Works for me." Jet nodded and put the object away somewhere. "_Now_ are you ready, hedgehog?"

"Everything's settled now, yeah! Wanna do the countdown buddy?" Sonic looked down at Tails, who shrugged in return.

"Can't we just… go?"

"Sure, that works. Go!"

Sonic's team immediately turned the opposite way and started running towards nowhere in particular. Tails soared up in the sky, probably scouting for the least dangerous looking entrance out of the hundreds there were. Sonic had to practically drag Wave along since she didn't bring her board to the trip.

And Jet soon got on his. Cream was already wearing her gear skates and just had to turn them on. She was also watching what Sonic was doing and decided to go one step further. Without warning, she swooped Amy up and start carrying her – an action that was met by a yelp of surprise from said hedgehog.

Jet sped ahead of them, avoiding the lava and finding a path that required no jumping – he didn't know if Cream had gotten used to that yet and didn't want to be held responsible if she got hurt. That closed a lot of the options they previously had for possible entrances, but there were still a handful to choose from. Jet stopped in front of an ornate gate that was carved into one of the many hills. He whistled as loud as he could to see how far the noise traveled. He then got off his board and motioned for Cream to turn off her gear before getting in.

Sonic mentioned he had been there before, but Jet couldn't remember him talking about any sort of treasure or interesting find. And he mentioned going in pretty deep too, just what was going on? The answer made itself clear as soon as they stepped inside. While the aboveground structures were mostly intact, a lot of the tunnel walls had either collapsed or gotten blocked by stray rocks and bricks – turning a once linear set of pathways into an artificially complicated maze.

The other issue was the lack of lighting in the deeper parts of the zone. If someone who had come unprepared was to guide themselves using only the light coming from the surface and the pools of lava, they'd stop going lower at a certain point. Jet had come prepared, however! He ditched his old goggles and put on a head lamp that instantly brightened the path ahead of them.

His companions stepped back so they wouldn't get blinded, and soon the three of them were venturing in. The lamp could only do so much though – they had to be extra careful about the spike traps and weighted pressure plates that littered the place for no reason in particular. On top of that, Jet had to stop and check all directions whenever they reached an intersection, analyzing the texture and carvings on the marble to try and identify what was the original path.

"So, Jet…" Cream had already put Amy back on her own feet, since they shouldn't be going fast in a place like that anyways, "tell me more about you and Sonic."

"Not the time." Jet groaned, analyzing the walls with his gloved hands. Not the most efficient way of doing it, but he didn't want to risk hurting them on any sharp edges.

"What are you talking about, now is the perfect time! It's just the three of us in here, and you don't even usually talk to me anyways so you don't have to worry about my opinion too much."

"The fact that I don't talk to you just makes me more uncomfortable telling you anyth— ow!" Jet had stubbed his toe in the corner of another metallic pushing block.

He angrily shoved it on the pressure plate with his uninjured foot. Instead of the spike trap in front of them raising, a chunk of the wall to their right lowered into the ground. Hot air and bright orange light emanated from the passage, the source of those being an extensive lava lake. There was a small platform they could step onto at the other side of the wall. It detached from the ground as soon as all three of them stood over it, floating deeper into the ruins.

Five minutes had passed and there still hadn't been any noticeable change in scenery, so Jet decided to sit down against the warm marble. Amy and Cream copied him soon enough, with the former scooting ever so slightly closer to him.

"I'll drop the subject for now, then." Amy let out a small frustrated sigh. "What have you been doing nowadays anyways? Still going on heists and getting fooled by Eggman?"

"I'm a professional extreme gear racer now, thank you." He crossed his arms over his chest. He was uncertain about that, but it wasn't like he was going to tell her he got ditched recently. "What about you? Still chasing Sonic despite him being clearly uncomfortable?"

Amy faltered, losing her words for a moment. "I'm doing sports too, actually! I've been trying to get into the big MMA leagues. I've been getting pretty good at it! Though I haven't gotten a contract offer yet… so I work at an ice cream parlor part-time."

Jet blinked, then looked away. For a moment he forgot that literally everyone else was up to more interesting things than him. Amy noticed Jet's brief flash of genuine discomfort and turned to talk to Cream. "What about you? Jet told me you've been getting into extreme gear lately."

"Oh yes, I have! Jet taught me some tricks just yesterday, he's really good at it." Cream smiled and nodded.

"That's pretty cool! I knew all the adventuring would rub off on you in one way or another. Is Vanilla okay with this?"

"Mom still worries about me of course, but not as much as before. Vector has been giving me self-defense classes to make me feel safer. I just hope I don't have to use any of that anytime soon…"

"I'm sure you won't. You're already looking way taller and stronger than you used to, nobody's gonna want to mess with you when they see how fierce you are!"

"I'm fierce?" Both Cream and Amy let out a small chuckle. "I suppose so. It's not like I was completely defenseless before, I already knew how to spindash and fly away from trouble. This is more so for mom's sake, you know?"

"I get you, yeah. It's still good to exercise in one way or another – and you get to see Charmy! You've been talking to each other lately, right?"

"For a while, actually. Mom and Vector go on dates pretty often nowadays, so me and Charmy get left together with Espio. He's pretty fun to be around!"

"I bet you wish you could go on dates with Charmy instead, huh?"

"W-what are you talking about?"

"Heeey, I saw you blushing! You like him!"

"It was just the lava, cut that out!"

Both of them started giggling and playfully jabbing at each other, which snapped Jet out of his thoughts. He suddenly got up and pushed past the girls to stand at the opposite end of the platform.

"This is taking too long, we're gonna lose to Sonic if this thing doesn't go faster."

Before Amy could tease him about not being able to row the platform with his ego alone, Jet took out his trusty _bashosen_ – a pair of fans made out of what looked like palm tree leaves at first glance. He held them above his head before bringing them down forcefully. Gusts of wind erupted from the fans and made the platform gain a small burst of speed. The lava agitated and splashed past, but luckily none of the drops hit them.

He was about to do it again but Amy _advised_ him against it. They were keeping the speed and going way faster than before – and it would be dangerous to have the platform shake and possibly flip over in a place like that. He begrudgingly agreed, sitting down once again.

"That's much better at least. It's not like I know where we're going anyways, for all I know we could just be going back to the surface." He sighed, putting the fans away.

"You're never going to beat Sonic with that attitude." Amy rolled her eyes. "You really didn't change a bit, did you?"

"We'll be lucky if we ever get to see Sonic again. Who knows how big this lake is, we could be here for days!"

"Aww, you want to see Sonic so bad? So you two really have something special going on!" Amy brought her hands together.

"Oh? Mister Jet has a crush on Sonic?" Cream stared at him curious, her tone much more genuine and not teasing at all like Amy's.

"…"

Nobody had told Jet being a nice person was so hard! He wanted to yell at Amy so badly, but he'd probably be labeled as the bad guy if he did so. That's how things usually went for him anyways. Maybe he should just give her what she wants once in for all. If Amy decided to do anything with the information other than keeping it hidden in her memory, he at least knew where the nearest pool of lava was.

"…I might have. I don't know yet."

That made Amy go silent, as if she was expecting Jet to yell at her instead. Instead of continuing to poke and prod him about it, she gently moved her gloved hand over his.

"Hey, you can take your time with it, alright? You don't need to rush to figure yourself out, it'll all come to you when the time is right."

Where did _that_ come from? Now it was Jet's turn to be surprised, but not too much. Of course _Amy_ out of all people would say something like that. He wanted to yank his hand away from hers and yell "just kidding!" as loud as he could, but she had such sincerity in her voice that he couldn't go for it. He just sat there, contemplating how that one meeting with Storm had managed to put him in such a peculiar situation.

"Why are you talking like that?"

Amy immediately pulled her hand away and broke the vibe they had going on. "I'm just trying to be nice, geez! You look like the type that desperately needs advice, you know."

"Maybe I am! Maybe I do!" Jet raised his hands in frustration. "How am I going to know when the time is right? That doesn't make any sense at all!"

"How am_ I_ supposed to know? The feelings are yours, I have no way of knowing what goes inside your head!"

Jet started to retort, but closed his beak and growled instead. She was right.

"At least tell me what I'm supposed to do if it does end up being a crush. I've never had one of those before."

Amy looked away with a melancholic smile on her face. "I'm afraid I'm not the right person to ask that."

Jet raised an eyebrow at first, then remembered his conversation with Sonic the previous night. He still acted like he had no clue what that was about though – he was pretty sure that was supposed to stay in private. "Whatever."

"But!" Amy turned to face him once again, her expression shifting into a grin. "I know who can."

"Really?" Jet's eyes perked up and he scolded himself internally for sounding that excited. "Who?"

"Well, I'm not sure I'm supposed to be telling you this, but… Sonic and Shadow used to date for a while. Maybe you could ask him about it. He's the only person that truly knows how it feels to date Sonic, he's perfect for the job. Getting him to actually tell you those things is going to be the most difficult part, but maybe if I talk to Rouge…"

"I have no clue who Shadow is. Like, really. Everyone's been talking about Shadow like I'm supposed to know who that is and I'm starting to go crazy."

"Don't worry about that too much, you'll know him when you see him. Besides," Amy got up and dusted her clothes, "I know you know who _Rouge_ is, so you can ask her about it if you're really that lost."

Jet nodded and turned to look at where they were heading. He could see it now – a way bigger platform in the middle of the lake, solid and unmoving. A pedestal stood right in the middle, and an object Jet couldn't identify just yet laid atop it. Him and Cream soon got up and patiently waited for their makeshift boat to arrive. Jet made sure to inspect the perimeter thoroughly before swiping the object, as the middle of a lake of lava was possibly one of the worst places to accidentally trigger a trap.

It looked like… a gourd? A very fancy one too, encrusted with bright red rubies horizontally across the middle. It was still shiny and room temperature (room temperature of a room with no lava in it, at least) despite how many thousands of years it must have remained in its pedestal. As soon as Jet's gloved hand touched it, the rubies seemed to flicker like LED lights. Only one of them retained its red coloring, while the rest faded into a dull gray.

"I knew it! I knew they were still out there, I knew it!" Jet started prancing around like he had won the lottery. Cream was confused but went along with his excitement, clapping her hands and congratulating him. Amy waited for him to finish his second lap before clearing her throat.

"I don't mean to be a buzzkill, but you two should have a look at that." Amy pointed towards the lava. The platform they had arrived with was getting away! Cream offered to fly them back onto it, but Jet held her back.

"Watch this!" Jet walked near the edge with the gourd in hands, putting the entrance against the lava. He whispered something to the object and both girls watched in surprise as the lava started to slowly drain away into the gourd.

"Legendary treasure two of five found!"


	7. Hawk and Hedgehogs

"So let me get this straight, you're saying that some magical artifacts from Naru—"

"**No**! They're from _Journey to the West_. Not really, since that's fictional and they're real, but that's the earliest depiction of them to date."

They had moved Jet's old desk into the middle of the airship's living room, because Jet could not bear to give an explanation without sitting by it. Sonic, Tails, Cream and Amy stood around it while listening to him spout lore about the mysterious gourd-shaped artifact they had just found in Marble Zone.

_Oh man_, it had just dawned on Jet that he was not good at talking in public. Well, as "public" as a group of four people could be. A group of three people and _Sonic_ – who could feel like both like a crowd and like he wasn't even there depending on the situation. What would Wave do if she was there? Probably take over his current role and give a much better explanation than he ever could. Not very helpful to his current situation. At least she had left him a small parting gift.

It was a necklace with an orb much like her own, though this one was almost the size of a tennis ball and was a slightly translucent light blue color. It wasn't multifunctional like the hers – its only purpose was to serve as a translation device. It even supported ancient Babylonian translation, although that feature was and would probably always be stuck in beta. Since most of the relevant texts were lost when the outer layer of the Babylon Garden got destroyed by the ark of the cosmos' black hole. Woops! Not something that was helpful to think about either!

"The bashosen is one of them." Jet put his fans on top of the desk. "They're not actually made by the Babylonians, but they were made using their technology. The set we're looking for was made by the civilization that originated Chun-nan. Supposedly guarded by the silver and gold horned devil kings or however the story goes."

"Okay, wait a minute. So technically, they're not yours to take, then?" Sonic took a step in front of Jet, arms crossed over his chest. The feeling of having to look up to make eye contact with the hedgehog was making Jet feel _something_.

"It's a long story." Jet waved dismissively, but Sonic leaned in so that they were both at eye level with each other.

"It's not like we're short on time, Flicky. We only arrive at Charmy's place late at night, and it'll take another day of travelling to reach our next real destination." Sonic stepped back beside the group, a small smirk on his face. "This is the perfect time for your little story. There's still time to turn this ship around if you're making us do something shady."

"Even more shady than disrupting possible archeological sites?" Jet raised an eyebrow.

"Even more shady." Sonic nodded.

Jet let out a sigh and leaned back on his chair, eyes closed deep in thought as if trying to find something hidden inside his brain. The few surviving written records that existed about the story were archived inside his father's house – so basically out of his reach forever. It's not like he didn't remember how the story went, but some of the details were starting to get a bit fuzzy in his memory. And like previously mentioned, his delivery wouldn't be the best. But it was either that or have the artifacts remain out of his grasp.

"Alright." Jet opened his eyes back up and straightened himself on his seat. "Have any of you ever stopped to think about the contradiction in the Babylonian lore?"

Everyone in the room looked at each other, with varying degrees of confusion on their faces. Tails was the one to finally provide an answer, clearing his throat and momentarily speaking up.

"You mean the fact that they have amazing technology, yet somehow dedicated themselves to thievery? As in, nothing they could steal on Mobius would have a value comparable to that of the things they could make themselves."

"Exactly, fox boy. It makes no sense when you think about it like that, right?" Jet had a vague hint of a smile on his face as he watched the mobians slowly nod. "It's because they weren't always so focused on stealing."

A pause. "In fact, it was pretty much the opposite for quite a while! They would share their great knowledge with other civilizations and give plenty of gifts to their leaders. Nobles would often come and ask for specific tools to make their lives easier. I'm sure you've all heard of the young boy that received angel wings. He didn't really rule the world like the story says, but it was still a valuable gift nonetheless."

"Then… what happened?" Amy asked, raising a hand to her chin. "They wouldn't ruin their reputation out of nowhere like that, right?"

"I don't remember exactly what it was, but I'm pretty sure it had something to do with a war. The Babylonians were completely against their technology being used for war, and suspected the other nations were doing it behind their backs. After that got confirmed by this one war, they decided to change their attitude. Most of them abandoned their advanced technology and proceeded to live just like the rest of the world. Some groups felt it was unjust that the Babylonians had to let go of their own culture and knowledge just because _other people_ couldn't use them responsibly."

"And that's the story of how the Babylon Rogues were created. They set out to reclaim their own technology from the hands of other civilizations… and then it devolved into regular stealing once they ran out of Babylonian technology." Jet shrugged. "Something about deserving to be compensated for the loss of millennia of accumulated knowledge even though nothing on Earth would ever be equally as valuable."

The room fell in silence. Not an awkward one, but a pretty long one regardless. Jet could tell by their expressions that they were each thinking about what to make of the story. Sonic's expression showed he was having a particularly hard time with this. Surprisingly, Cream was the first to speak up.

"I suppose what we're doing is fine, then? It's not like we're taking treasure from someone's house. The gourd at least looked like it had been left there on purpose, and no one came back to get it before us."

Amy frowned. "I wouldn't call it fine, but… it's way more morally gray than the things you used to do, Jet."

"Well, that's fine by me." Sonic finally chimed back into the conversation, shrugging. "If I'm okay with Shadow working for the military, then I'm okay with this. Now c'mon, let's put this desk back in the storage."

After that, their day proceeded as usual with no more questioning about the legality of the situation they were in. Jet was feeling a bit proud of himself for managing to tell the story so well! He really felt like bragging, but that's not what a nice person would do. A nice person would be modest and hang out with his friends, and that's what he did. He spent most of the day helping Cream practice her extreme gear skills, but he also spared some time to help Amy and Tails with whatever.

Jet was starting to get slightly upset at how little time he was spending with Sonic – and then upset that he had gotten upset about a stupid minor thing like that. Even after his conversation with Amy back at Marble Zone, there was still _something_ holding him back from fully accepting himself. He tried thinking of everything that might have been affecting him, but nothing came to mind. Oh well, nothing some therapy sessions couldn't fix when he got back home! He got so far as to admit to himself and to others that there _is_ an issue, might as well take care of it too.

But it's not like he didn't get to talk with Sonic at all. In fact, they got a lot of time for themselves when it came time for everyone to go back to their rooms. It was mostly small talk or playing one of Sonic's dozens of board games, but it was still time well spent. They spent the nights laughing and challenging each other, and then laid down to sleep when all the energy had left them.

It was all Jet could ever ask for.

Jet originally wasn't going to stay up to greet Charmy and whoever else was supposed to board the airship in the middle of the night, but he ended up changing his mind. At the very last minute, when he woke up after only a few hours of sleep and noticed Sonic wasn't on his bunk anymore.

His need to see Sonic was enough to get him out of bed, but not enough to completely make up for the lack of sleep. He practically dragged himself out of the room and towards the hall, feet bare and long feathers let loose and covering part of his face. He was already able to hear a conversation before he got there, though making out what they were saying was difficult.

After turning the corner, he had finally come face to face with the group. The ramp was still lowered, and it looked like they were parked in a residential area. Atop a wide but not very tall building, he noted. Sonic and Amy were the closest to him, and Charmy was slowly making his way up the ramp while they chatted. There was also someone else, a black and red colored hedgehog that looked even grumpier than he did.

"…Is that Vanilla's car over there? Okay, that's Vanilla's car, she got in the right car. Come in already you two, there' some… Oh, hey Jet! Did we wake you up?" Sonic shot him a smile and a thumbs up, making everyone else turn to acknowledge his presence. How did he sound so chipper this late in the night?

"'s fine." Jet scanned the group, his tired eyes eventually focusing on Charmy as he raised a hand to wave at him. "Hey."

"Hey Jet! You look like you've passed through a blender before coming here." The bee was already in his pajamas, a smart choice in Jet's opinion. His eyes roamed once again until meeting the unknown hedgehog, who had a perpetually annoyed look on his face. Sonic quickly noticed the eye contact between the two and rushed to his side to wrap a hand around his shoulder.

"Right! Let me finally introduce you guys to each other. Shadow, this is Jet. Jet, this is Shadow."

**Shadow**, huh?

So he was the one Amy had mentioned. The name seemed to slowly wake him up, partially due to the anxiety that was slowly beginning to fill his body. Shadow's expression changed ever so slightly, now more of a tired yet neutral look than outright annoyance. He quickly glanced at Amy, who gave him a wink and nothing else.

"Nice to meet you. Welcome to my ship and all that." Jet reached a hand to scratch the back of his neck, just now realizing he had come to greet his new crew members completely naked. Not that it was an issue, but it wasn't the best of impressions to make. Gloves and shoes went a long way in mobian culture.

"It's a nice ship." Was all Shadow commented before Charmy led him further inside and towards his room. Amy followed soon after, but not before giving Jet a very hard to ignore wink. Even Sonic caught sight of it.

Both Jet and Sonic shrugged to teach other in response to that and went back to their rooms. Jet wished he could fall back asleep just as easily as he had woken up, but his mind was racing with all sorts of questions. Was that really Shadow? So Sonic was into bad boys then? Or was it the polite and (supposedly) reserved type that attracted him? How was he going to get on the same level as someone so handsome? Were those cool shoes of his extreme gear?

Eventually – after a very short time, actually – Jet got tired of telling his mind to shut up and simply let the anxiety flood him. As he did that, he noticed Sonic wasn't snoring loudly as usual. He rolled on his stomach and peered down at the bottom bunk, where the hedgehog was staring back at him.

"You okay up there? You were kinda… tossing and turning a little. Need another blanket?" Sonic asked, rubbing his tired eyelids.

"Do you think Shadow thinks less of me because I was naked when you introduced me to him?" That wasn't what was bothering him of course, but he had to step into the subject somehow.

Sonic had to snort a little at just how blunt Jet was. "What? No way, man! I've done way worse in front of Shadow, and we're still good friends."

"_Weh_." Jet rolled onto his back again, starring at the metallic ceiling. "How did you two meet each other?"

"Like how I meet most of my new friends, he kept trying to beat me up for a while but then he calmed down."

"…Did I do that to you?"

"I mean… I guess you're one of the exceptions."

Jet shrugged to himself. He did think of beating Sonic up once or twice in the past, but he was too much of a wimp (and had no reason) to even consider doing that. Even then, that differentiated him for the rest of his friends somehow. He didn't know if that was a nice thing, but he hoped it was.

"Why are you asking?" Sonic's voice pulled him out of his thoughts. "Don't tell me you got the hots for Shadow after you saw him for the first time."

"What?! No, of course n— Ow!" Jet forgot the ceiling wasn't as tall as it looked and smacked the top of his head on it as he rushed to sit up.

"No need to be embarrassed by it! I'll admit I also had to take some time to breathe when I first saw him. How can you resist all that?" Sonic got off the bed to see if Jet was okay, quickly laying back down.

"Gross. I mean, I can't deny he's kind of handsome, but I don't really want to know what and who turns you on. Like, ever." Jet groaned. "And I'm not interested _in him_. I swear he could have cut my beak off with all that edge."

Did he emphasize that by accident? He felt like he emphasized that. It was the closest he ever came to admitting his crush on Sonic – and hopefully the closest he'd ever get to it for a while. The hedgehog fortunately didn't seem to catch onto that, simply letting out a chuckle.

"Awww, really? Bummer, I thought we were having a bit of a moment back there. At least I got to listen to you admitting Shadow was hot. And less than one hour after meeting him too! It took me almost a full month before I even let myself think about it."

Oh? _**Oh**_? Finally something he could relate to! Maybe what he was feeling was normal after all! "What? Why? You're usually the type that likes to run your big mouth at the first opportunity you get."

"It's… kind of complicated? I mean, Shadow is descended from a murderous race of aliens first of all, so that's kind of a turn off for most people. And he's technically like… almost in his sixties? Like, he has the physical appearance and mental age of someone in his twenties like me, but he's been alive way longer. Even if most of this time was just spent in cryo-sleep. Y'know what I'm saying."

Oh. Never mind, Sonic was totally unrelatable and he felt like a fool for believing even a single aspect of Sonic's life didn't involve some sort of interesting and cool backstory with lots of heroism and Chaos Emerald shenanigans. Jet's mood quickly turned sour as he got mad at himself for getting so hopeful over something like that.

"I have no idea what you're talking about most of the time. I'm not some sort super genius or a space pretty-boy or any of the kind of lunatics you usually hang out with. I'm just an ordinary guy that got roped into two adventures and then never had anything interesting happen ever again."

Jet obviously couldn't see the expression Sonic was making, but he imagined it was either a glare that could cut through the bed frame or a very exaggerated teary-eyed guilty face. Whatever it was, it was coupled with a rather long pause coming from the hedgehog.

"Do you feel left out, Jet?"

Huh?

"Huh?"

"Of like… I don't know, life in general. Like… feeling like everyone else has their own little friend group that goes on their own little adventures. Without you." Another pause, although a small one this time. "I know this is really abstract and vague, but I can't think of a better way to ex—"

"Yes. Every single day. Even right now, while I'm talking to so many new people. It doesn't feel like they're really here for me, it feels like they're here only because of you. Call me _petty_ and pathetic all you want. Turn the airship around or whatever. I don't care."

"Why would I do any of that? That's exactly how I feel."

Jet's eyes were wide open. Even though he had beaten himself up for thinking he could relate to any of Sonic's crazy life experiences just a few seconds earlier, this time he felt like it was going to be something he could actually relate to. It was almost like Sonic could hear the gears turning inside his head, since he spoke up at the exact time he had finished processing the sentence.

"Well, it's not nearly as bad as your case anymore, but I still do pretty often. I don't… want to make it sound like I'm yelling at you _"hey, I'm just like you so stop being sad!"_ or anything like that. I just want to make clear I'm on the same level as you, no playful taunting or anything this time."

Sonic took a deep breath, sitting up himself. He had to hunch over a bit so his head wouldn't hit the top bunk frame.

"It's always kind of lonely whenever the adventures end, you know? Amy, Shadow, Knuckles… even Tails goes back to a relatively normal life once all the mess gets cleaned up. And I just… stay here. I have to stay alert in case anything or anyone else tries to threaten the world."

…

"Eggman has been off everyone's radar for a whole two years now. What if he just went away, changed his identity and started a new life? I'd still be here, waiting and waiting for him to return so I can be the hero again. Sometimes I wonder if being a hero is all I know how to do anymore. Heck, I don't even remember what my hobbies were before the first time I saw the doctor shoving animals inside robots."

…

"I know you must hate me right now. For trying to imply being loved by basically the whole world is a bad thing. But I'm just…I'm trying my best, you know? I always keep going. I have to keep going. For the world. For Tails. For Charmy and Cream. For _you_."

"You don't have to keep going for me."

Sonic suddenly fell into silence, not really expecting to hear Jet speak with a tone so genuine, so kind.

"I mean… I live in the world, of course I want it saved. But you don't have to put all that pressure on yourself like that. What if it's something not even you can take on your own? You're gonna be the first one to rush over to the issue, and you're gonna be the first one to die alone."

"I guess when you put it like that…"

"You _are_ the fastest thing in the universe anyways, you can get to wherever the trouble is in a second no matter where you are."

"Since when did you hand me the title, Flicky?"

"_Stop that_."

Another line that made Sonic's eyes widen. Was he even speaking to the same person anymore?

"Stop pitying me. When we started this… _stupid_ dispute six years ago, it was only because I didn't know any better. Now I know who you are and I know that you're the faster on foot than I'll ever be on extreme gear, and I'm _not_ upset about it."

"You're not?"

"What, do you think I can just paint myself blue and suddenly get on the same level as you? One thing is being stubborn, but this is something else. I know I'm never going to be that fast, and I'm fine with it. I'm fine at being good at my own niche hoverboard sport. You thinking I'd still be upset over something so… _childish_ is what pisses me off."

Another very long pause coming from Sonic. And this time, Jet wasn't worried about making him upset. He didn't know where the words came from, or how he managed to say all that without stuttering or getting flustered or chickening out in any way. But his chest already felt a whole lot lighter than when he first got into that airship. Finally, Sonic let out a sigh.

"I guess I've been pitying you all along, huh? Jeez man, I'm… I didn't even realize I was doing that. I shrugged it off when Shadow told me I was trying to play the therapist, but this… I'm sorry for behaving this way, Jet. I really do."

"I'll believe you, as long as you start treating me as an equal to you from now on. No more isolating yourself in your pedestal just because you were at the right place at the right time and ended up saving the world a couple of times by accident."

"Only if you stop putting yourself under because you were at the wrong place at the wrong time twice and ended up getting caught in my messes."

"It's fair."

Both of them fell in silence. A warm, comforting silence. None of them had anything else to get off their chests – nothing negative, at least. It felt good for Jet to be so open and honest with Sonic for once, and he hoped the hedgehog felt the same way.

"Tomorrow I'll show you around the engine room and all that. It's your ship, you deserve to know what's going on." Sonic's voice was soothing, way more than when he was actually trying to comfort Jet.

"I promise I won't blow anything up and make us fall into the ocean." Jet snickered, closing his heavy eyelids.

"Good luck getting Tails to even come close to the new engine. He was almost hesitant to let _Wave_ near it after the upgrades."

"Maybe you should have one of these conversations with him too, huh? Maybe it'll work for him as well."

Both of them laughed, wiping off tears they didn't know they shed.

* * *

**Author's Note: I didn't intend for the Babylonians' backstory to be so similar to the Sheikah/Yiga from BotW but that's kinda how it came out, oops. Also this was originally only going to be half of a chapter but their conversation was getting long and I realized they haven't had many solo interactions so I turned it into this instead. Hope y'all like the chapter!**


	8. Foreign

"This is a bad idea and you know it."

Jet was quietly enjoying his bowl of cereal beside Tails in the corner of the engine room. Both of them were watching the discussion that unfolded between the two hedgehogs when Shadow got a hold of their schedule (which Jet had only thought of getting a copy for himself this morning). According to it, their next destination would be the mysterious Angel Island, home of the long gone echidna tribe and their tales of war and redemption.

Well, it was only mysterious for Jet. Everyone else in the ship seemed to know where it was and what was in there. The echidnas were also technically not long gone. There was still _one_, and Shadow argued that he wouldn't be very happy to see them arrive so suddenly like that.

From what he remembered, Knuckles was short-tempered and hot-headed. If he was the one guarding the Babylonian treasure then they'd probably have some _issues, _to say the least. Sonic was not convinced, though.

When asked if he thought the mission was a lost cause, Jet simply replied "I dunno". That registered as a "it's not, let's keep going dude!" in Sonic's brain, and of course he wanted to avoid disappointing the hawk at all costs. Not after that _sick_ heart-to-heart they shared in the night prior.

"You're underestimating mine and Knuckles' friendship, grouch. He knows I'm 100% trustworthy and wouldn't be letting Jet roam around his island without a good reason."

Jet was a little offended by the implications that wording had, but it's not like he was _wrong_. Knuckles didn't know he was (trying to be) a nice person now, and knocking that into his head was probably going to take some time. Time that they didn't have, thanks to Sonic's… less than ideal planning.

"You have a reason, but is it a _good enough_ one?" Shadow raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah it is! I mean, the world's not in danger or anything like that, but…"

Sonic trailed off, probably realizing the other hedgehog had a point. Shadow raised an eyebrow at him as if daring him to resume the thought.

"It's going to be fine!" Sonic waved it off. "Besides, it's not like we're there for the master emerald anyways. The Babylonians would have probably taken it millennia ago if it was of any use for them. Not that I'm undermining the echidna, but c'mon. Those guys had hoverboards before non-hover boards were even invented!"

"I guess I can give you that." Shadow huffed, crossing his arms and turning to walk away into the hallway. That was enough of a win for Sonic! He quietly pumped his fist in the air and continued to gaze through one of the ship's windows.

Jet decided to walk away from the control room. Tails told him they were almost there as he got up to leave, and he simply nodded in response. He made his way back to the kitchen to clean his dishes… and ended up having to clean everyone else's as well. It's not like anyone was forcing him to, but that's what a nice person would do. A fair amount of time passed before he was done with it, and he could already see land when he looked through one of the hallway windows.

Being on a flying piece of land after so many years was… nostalgic, to say the least. Although this one was much different than Babylon Garden. Despite how relatively small the island was, Jet could see pretty much all types of biomes and climates in the distance. Forests, snowy mountains, volcano… even a desert? This place was a mystery on itself, and Jet wouldn't even be mad if he came back empty handed. Getting to spend time on such a fascinating environment was a treasure of its own.

…That's what the thought process of _someone who wasn't Jet_ would be. Jet really didn't care for any of whatever was going on down there – he really just wanted to take whatever artifact that echidna was hiding from him and get out of there. Maybe someday he'd learn to appreciate the beautiful landscapes he always found himself on, but that was not the day.

They were quick to land and the ramp was lowered as soon as Jet took a step outside the kitchen. He was going to be the first to come out of the ship, but Sonic dashed past him because why wouldn't he. It looked like they landed right by the edge of the island – a little too close for Jet's liking in fact. Short grass surrounded them in every direction and paved the way into the wooded area ahead, which led to some sort of tall ancient structure. Everywhere else led to a fall into the sea of clouds below.

"Hey, fancy seeing you here! It's been ages since we've last seen each other!"

Sonic had stopped in front of the entrance to the woods to greet someone Jet didn't recognize. They wore a pair of brown and gray steel-toed boots as well as similarly colored fingerless gloves. Their skin was a light peach color just like Sonic's, and their fur was black. They had what appeared to be a crimson shell going from their head down to their lower back right above their tail. They had dropped their heavy looking bag and expensive camera on the ground so the hedgehog would have an easier time lifting them up in a hug.

"It's been a while, huh? I'm surprised I haven't run into you on here sooner, actually. Knuckles says you come to visit some once in a while." They had a big smile and a small blush on their face, wrapping his arms around Sonic briefly.

"I guess we've just had some pretty bad timing. Hey, let me introduce you to everyone!" Sonic finally released the poor mobian, turning him over to show him to the rest of the crew – which Jet didn't notice were now standing right beside him.

Okay, now _that_ was envy if Jet ever felt it before. It wasn't as overwhelming as the feeling he thought was envy was, but it was still buzzing in the back of his mind. Who was that? How many years had they known each other? Would he and Sonic ever get this close? Did Sonic have a thing for people that had red in their color scheme? He did have a couple of feathers of that color near the corner of his eyes, so that last question was irrelevant for now. But still! He wanted answers!

…Answers that would come regardless of whether he threw a mental tantrum or not. _Chaos, have some patience Jet_, he thought to himself for maybe the first time ever.

"Guys, this is Mighty. We've known each other for like… almost as long as I've known Tails! Eggman shenanigans and all that." Sonic had his hand on the armadillo's shoulder for a moment before removing it to give him a pat on the back.

"Oh, hey Mighty!" Charmy and Tails were just now leaving the airship. The bee briefly flew towards him and gave him a fist bump. "You're looking cool!"

"Charmy? It's been forever, look at how much you've grown!" Mighty gently grabbed Charmy by the waist and then proceeded to launch him a couple dozen feet into the air. Jet audibly gasped, then sighed in relief once Charmy fluttered back onto the ground harmlessly. The bee stepped back into the group and Mighty turned to face everyone else.

"Pleasure to meet all of you!" His grin persisted as he greeted them. He received a wave of greetings from the others in return – including Jet, who was initially not going to greet him back but was _convinced_ to by a small nudge coming from Shadow beside him. "I'm assuming you're all friends of Knuckles as well, huh?"

"Yeah, of course!" Sonic replied, even though Jet barely knew the echidna. "Are you here to visit him or something? I know you two also got caught up in Eggman shenanigans together a long time ago."

"Yep, I was hanging out with him just now! I was making my way back when I bumped into you guys." The blush on Mighty's face seemed to deepen at the mention of Knuckles, which made Jet's envy dissipate almost instantly. He knew a lovesick fool when he saw one, the airship had a mirror.

"How did you get up here?" Everyone turned to look at Shadow, who had his arms crossed and an eyebrow raised.

"Oh, I arrived by boat. Knuckles just lowers the island so I can get on it." That reply got an incredulous stare from the ultimate lifeform, but it didn't look like he had anything to refute that. Looking around, Jet didn't see any other planes or anything like that, but he _did_ see a small rowboat down at the ocean through a clearing in the clouds.

"Now I'm waiting for Ray to come pick me up. I used to just cannonball back down, but that was before I started bringing my camera." Mighty picked up his belongings from the ground, strapping the camera around his neck.

"I saw it, you're looking pretty fancy dude! Are you a photographer now or something?" Sonic asked.

"For a nature magazine yeah! There's some plants here on Angel Island that are really rare or outright impossible to find anywhere else. Knuckles is fine with it as long as I don't take pictures of him or the master emerald or anything else that might make people… well, want to come here."

Sonic looked surprised, but positively so. "For real? That's pretty cool, I'm glad you found something that makes you happy! If you asked me ten years ago what I thought you'd be doing now, I'd say you'd be living in the woods."

"Not since they kicked me out of the national park!" Both mobians laughed for a little bit, with smiles and discrete chuckles coming from Tails and Amy. Jet and Shadow were left out of the loop, since they didn't really know the guy.

"Well, thanks for softening up Knuckles for us, we need to ask him a favor and it's a tough one."

"I wouldn't say I softened him, he's still the same guy as always. Muscles first and all that."

"As long as you didn't make him more irritable, everything should go fine and dandy!"

"I'm sure everything is going to be alright, you have a way with words. Sometimes." Might have Sonic a pat on the back that almost knocked him out of his feet. The hedgehog only laughed about it and they shared one last handshake before the group started heading out towards the forest.

The envy was gone as soon as it came and the encounter didn't stick in his mind as something important, so Jet was able to pay a little more attention to his surroundings – even if he didn't fully appreciate them.

"Forest" wasn't really the correct way to describe it, it was more like a small-scale jungle. The trees were as tall as they got and some even got the width to match. They roots were thick and often stuck out of the ground, making traversing the place quite difficult. That is, it _would_ have been difficult if Mighty hadn't been there before them. No harm was done to the plants, but a few places where one assumed there would be rocks were now full of dust and shards. Some of the more resistant boulders got pushed aside instead, no matter how big or heavy-looking.

Because everyone had powers that matched their names, except Jet. Or Shadow, but Jet didn't know that and was too scared of him to ask him about it.

The woods eventually gave way to a large field area with the master emerald altar in the middle. Though that wasn't what surprised Jet the most, it was the flowers. Hundreds – no, thousands of them! They were scattered around the ancient's structure in a series of circular layers divided by stone. Each of them contained various different species of flowers all with the same color, making the whole plantation look almost like a rainbow. What's more, the outermost layer had been excavated and a nearby river rerouted into it. Stone pillars had been cut in half and placed over the water like makeshift bridges.

Sonic had his jaw on the floor. "Looks like Mighty has been helping Knuckles out as well, this place is **so** different from when I visited last Christmas. Oh hey, over there!"

Blending in with the red flowers, the aforementioned echidna could be found with a watering can in his hands and a hat on his head. His cheeks had a blush that matched the nearby roses in color, right up until he noticed the group arriving and focused on recomposing himself from whatever he had been daydreaming about.

"Wasn't expecting any more visitors today! Wait for me to get there, don't you dare step on my flowers." The echidna waved with his free hand. He finished watering that particular patch of flowers and carefully made his way to the grassy field were the other mobians were.

Knuckles' eyes were quick to set on Jet, squinting as if trying to read his thoughts to figure out just what the hawk was doing on his island. His focus quickly shifted to Shadow, and then finally ended up on Charmy. The bee gave him an excited grin and tackle-hugged him to the ground.

"Look at you now, got a farmer hat on and everything! About time you retired that cowboy hat of yours." Charmy teased, nudging his hat before getting off him.

"For your information, my cowboy hat is still in perfect conditions and I'd be wearing it right now if I knew you were coming." Knuckles got up soon after. His joyful smile faltered when he turned to speak to Sonic.

"So! Why are you guys here today? Shadow on my island usually means Eggman is up to no good."

Sonic was quick to gesture his hands in dismissal. "Oh no, it's nothing like that! You see, we're ju—"

"Okay, then why is he here?" Knuckles pointed towards Jet with a closed first. The hawk just stood there and awkwardly waved back in return. "Are the Babylon Rogues up to no good again? Do you need me to watch over him and teach him a lesson? About time I got to punch someone's teeth off."

"Wait, does Jet have teeth inside his beak? That's pretty weird!" Sonic ignored Charmy's comment and quickly put himself in front of Knuckles, who was already making his way towards Jet with raised fists.

"Easy there, Chaos! The Rogues disbanded ages ago! Jet is a cool guy now."

Knuckles looked a tad bit disappointed he wasn't getting to punch someone anymore. He lowered his fists, but Jet could still see distrust in his eyes. "Oh. Why is he here then? No, actually, why are _any_ of you here?"

"We're here on vacation, duh!" Amy snickered. Knuckles didn't look so thrilled with the joke.

"Well, sorta but not really. It's a long story, but basically Jet found something in the Rogues airship that says there's a Babylonian treasure in this island." Sonic explained.

"And _you_'re with him because…?" Knuckles raised an eyebrow.

"I said it's a long story! Look, I'll explain everything to you before we go in and—"

"Before you go in _where_? Do you think you can just come into my island and walk wherever you want just because this **thief** somehow convinced you guys to take him here? So he could steal whatever he's looking for? Not on my watch."

"I mean, the list was right about there being a Babylonian artifact in Marble Zone, so it's not a longshot to assume there's gotta be at least _something_ here, right?" Tails spoke up, but didn't manage to change Knuckles' stance.

"This list of his was right once, so what? You don't even know what you're supposed to be looking for in here!" He raised his hands up in the air dramatically.

"I think it's probably another gourd, or maybe the sw—" Jet was interrupted by the echidna rudely pointing his spiky knuckles at his neck.

"_You_ shut up, I'm talking to my friends." He retreated his arms and crossed them over his chest, turning to face Sonic once again. "Look, him being here is pretty much the only reason I don't help you guys find whatever you're looking for. I'd like for this alien bullshit to be off my island as soon as possible as well. No offense to you, Shadow."

"None taken." Shadow had the faintest hint of a smirk on his face.

"I can just stay in the ship if you'd pr—"

"I told you to shut up!" Knuckles growled, not even turning his head this time.

"Geez Knux, we get it. I guess we'll be making our way out then, I wonder if Mighty and Ray need a ride…"

Sonic shrugged and turned to walk away. He only managed to take a few steps before Knuckles grabbed him by the shoulder.

"Hey! I said you can't go tomb raiding in my island, not that you can't stay here." Jet couldn't believe Sonic was taking advantage of Knuckles' loneliness like that! That was the coolest thing he's ever seen him do!

"Oh yeah?" Sonic rolled his eyes with a smirk. "Fine, I guess we can camp here and then resume the trip tomorrow. Everyone's pretty worn out from the long flight, so a relaxing stay in nature sounds really good right now. What do you think, guys?"

Everyone agreed, except Jet. He didn't want to risk being yelled at again.

"I'm letting you guys stay, but there's some rules." Knuckles quickly abandoned his needy expression and went back to his tough guy stance.

"One, no one leaves this field without my permission. Two, no one leaves the plains and forest area _at all_. Three, Jet needs to be with someone at all times."

"Ha, that's easy! I'll just show him around the place and—"

"**Four**. Or… three point five. The person accompanying him can't be Sonic. I know you'll enable him and you two are gonna cause big trouble for me. Besides, you're going to help me water some flowers while you explain to me exactly what's going on."

"Only if you let me use your cowboy hat."

"Deal."

Jet had tuned out of the conversation after that. He thought he was done being treated like a kid, but nope! Always something to ruin his fun time. If only he could convince someone to let him back into the ship, he could get his extreme gear and do some laps around the grassy field. As far away from the flowers as possible, of course. There wouldn't be any obstacles or anything to make it interesting, but…

Jet was snapped out of his thoughts as he noticed he was now in movement. Being dragged, to be precise, by a very strong gloved hand attached to a pink arm. He looked around and saw Amy pulling both him and Shadow farther from the main group. Tails and Charmy were swimming by the makeshift river around the altar, while Knuckles and Sonic were far away discussing something in the middle of the dandelions.

"What's going on?" Jet didn't even try to pull himself out of Amy's grasp.

Shadow seemed indifferent to the whole situation, if not a tad bit annoyed. "I'd like to know as well. I was preparing myself to swim."

"Later, later! You two really need to talk. We have some important business to discuss ASAP. This is the second to last stop Shadow is going to be here for, so it's best to sort things out now and focus on adventuring or whatever on the next one."

Oh, so that's what this was about, huh. Jet immediately tried fleeing. He tried holding onto the bark of a nearby tree. He even tried biting Amy's arm (and then his own), but to no avail. It took Shadow teleporting away from her and making them tumble before she was willing to listen to any of the two.

"I would like an explanation. Like you said, I'll only be here for two stops. My time is precious." Shadow helped get Amy and Jet back on their feet. "Make it quick."

"Jet is like, totally in love with Sonic and you need to help him." Jet was mortified at just how _blunt_ she was being! Shadow didn't seem like the kind of guy that would reveal his little secret to Sonic, but it's not like they knew each other for very long. Nothing was off the table for now, unfortunately.

Shadow raised an eyebrow. He opened his mouth to speak, then closed it back up. Hm. Whatever the hedgehog was expecting the whole ordeal to be about, it clearly wasn't this. It took him a few more seconds to finally come up with a verbal response.

"Why is that your business?"

To Jet, Amy's expression looked like a spoiled child whose parents had just told her no for the first time. "Huh?"

"If this conversation really needed to happen, Jet would have come to me on his own terms." Shadow crossed his arms over his chest. "Amy, don't get me wrong. I—"

"No he **wouldn't**, you guys just met yesterday! He's not comfortable with you just yet, that's why I'm here."

"He doesn't look too comfortable with _you_ either, you're possibly just making things worse. Please knock it off."

"Shadow, you're being really difficult right now." Amy had a scowl on her reddening face. Shadow remained stoic.

"Amy. This isn't about you."

"What, I can't do nice things for my friends now?"

"Jet is barely an acquittance for you."

"I'm not talking about _him_, I'm talking about Sonic! And I'm doing _both of them_ a favor by doing this, and _you're_ ruining the moment."

"Did they ask you to help them."

"They don't need to ask if they're clearly in need of help!"

"You're not doing this for them."

For a moment, everything went quiet. Then Amy blew up.

"You want me to say it so bad, Shadow? Then I'll say it. I'm only doing this because I want to see Sonic with someone who he actually likes and isn't a creepy weirdo with no life! I want someone to have what I can't so I'll feel better about myself! I'm doing this because I threw all the progress I've made with my mental health in the garbage! Are you happy now, Shadow? Do you feel more _ultimate_ than before? This is why **NO ONE** invites you to anything fun and this is why you only have two friends! Because **NO ONE ELSE** is willing to put up with the _most insufferable_ lifeform!"

Amy ran away while covering her face. She looked like she was trying to hold her sobs, and somewhat failing at it. Shadow just stood there facing her general direction with his mouth agape before he mouthed a "I'll deal with this, stay here" to Jet – who was completely stunned – and ran away after her. And stay he did, standing with his back against a tree and holding his hands together in front of his abdomen.

Was that his fault? Surely it wasn't, he didn't get a say in it whatsoever. But it happened while he was there and he did nothing to stop it, so he technically had some fault in it… right? In Jet's mind, he had already pictured a big fight that would absolutely ruin the trip for everyone and maybe even make Sonic cancel it. But he always imagined he'd be one of the participants. The fact that he wasn't didn't make him feel better _at all_.

Could this get any wors—

"What the **FUCK** did you do?"


	9. Wonders you can't have

He didn't have time to even start processing what the hell just happened because someone else was approaching him - and quite angrily at that. Fortunately for him, it wasn't Knuckles. Unfortunately, that was the most angry he had ever seen Tails get ever.

"What the **FUCK** did you do?" Jet jumped slightly, not expecting the fox to be so loud. _Of course_ he got the blame for that. Disappointing but unsurprising.

"What do you mean what _**I**_ did? Shadow was the one that made Amy mad like that! I'm innocent!"

"Oh yeah, sure you are. Like you're ever innocent, you… you thief!" Despite how much taller than Tails he was, the fox still had him backing up against the tree as if he was double his height and had the muscles to match. Or spiky fists, those probably hurt quite a lot.

"I'm telling the truth! Amy started dragging us to the woods to tell Shadow about my crush on Sonic and—" Jet immediately stopped talking and put his hands in front of his beak. The anger on Tails' face dissipated as well, getting replaced with… pity? Sadness? Guilt? Jet couldn't tell.

"Oh. Uh… where did Shadow go?" Tails' voice was _much _quieter than just a few seconds ago.

"He said he was going to deal with it then ran after her."

"Okay… I guess he's going to deal with it." Tails sighed. He walked to the opposite side of the tree Jet was standing by and sat down with his back pressed against it. "I hope he's discrete about it at least. If Sonic finds out something like that is going on again… it's going to be the end of the trip, that's for sure."

Jet was… out of words once again. Tails had gone from threatening him to acting as like he had received the worst news of his life in the span of less than a minute. Was there some sort of tension between Shadow and Amy he didn't know about? Was it something that Sonic wasn't supposed to know? The more things happened, the less Jet felt a part of the group. Everything was just happening around him and he had no say in it whatsoever.

The hawk finally slumped down on the tree as well, resting his hands on his lap. He couldn't hear either of the angry hedgehogs, only Tails' quiet breathing and the distant sound of water splashing. The wind soon came to shake the treetops and produce a soothing noise, almost as if sensing their distress. It didn't make him feel any better, but it did help him focus enough to find the right wording.

"I thought…" Jet began, initially expecting Tails to cut him off. The fox kept his mouth shut, so he continued. "I thought Amy had gotten better. Sonic told me she was still dealing with, but he made it sound like her deal was… manageable. She's been bugging me the whole trip about this… whatever. Crush. I've said crush already, right? You heard me. Make fun of me all you want, it won't be the first time this week."

"…"

Tails held his breath for a long time. If he didn't know any better, Jet would say he had flied away in silence and left him all on his own again. But he could hear dry leaves crinkling under the younger mobian's fists. Very shy, very restrained.

"…Okay, maybe this wasn't the best way to go about it, I'm sorry. Just… tell me what's going on! I know you're like… not responsible for any of this but you're the only stable person around at the moment."

"…"

"It just feels like I'm getting dragged everywhere even though this was supposed to be _my_ trip! I just wanted to spend time with Sonic and maybe find some loot along the way, but everyone else has their own… _thing_ going on! And it always ends up being the spotlight and leaving me on the sidelines with nothing to do! It feels like I'm not here at all!"

Jet hated just how entitled he sounded. How selfish and whiny. No matter how hard he tried to be a nice person, that's how his words would always come out. Mad at something he couldn't understand. Mad at something that wasn't his business. Mad at something _because_ it wasn't his business.

Somehow, he managed to take a long sigh out of the fox. Which of course, might have not even been his doing because he obviously needed to resume his breathing whether Jet convinced him to talk or not. But resume it did, and his voice followed.

"You promise you won't tell Sonic?"

It was fascinating, Tails had an entirely different air to himself. The way he said that made him sound like a teenager – a _real_ one. The kind that had just broken a vase at someone else's house and was trying his best to avoid a scolding from his relatives.

"If you promise not to tell Sonic I _have a crush on him_." The words didn't feel quite natural in his mouth, but they came out regardless.

Tails took in another deep breath, another slow sigh. "We… _I _haven't been completely honest to Sonic. I wanted him to feel like everything was fine because he already has so much going on, but… It just ended like this. He told you about… you know, being a hero and all that, right?"

Jet nodded, even if Tails wouldn't see it. "Yeah. Said he felt like that was his only trait nowadays and stuff. Pretty relatable stuff."

"Yeah. He has a tendency of just… blaming himself for everything bad that happens with his friends, you know? Like… like how he and Shadow broke up and he felt bad about it for _months_. Even though both of them agreed that would be the best way of preserving their relationship."

Right. He never did get a chance to have a talk with Shadow about his previous romantic experiences with Sonic. He guessed it couldn't be that bad, since the two were bantering and chatting like old friends back at the ship, but…

"And— and Amy? Chaos, what a fiasco that was. We all thought she was okay, but… she was hiding how bad she really felt from us, just so Sonic could have fun being in her company for once. I feel so bad for not noticing it until it was too late…"

"This wasn't the first fight between her and Shadow. Sonic was there for the first one, and… you can guess what that did to him. I think he's still not completely over it. He barely even talked to Amy this whole trip."

"Why is any of this _your_ fault?" Jet asked bluntly.

"Shadow and Amy wanted to have a… a talk with Sonic, I guess? To sort things out and all that. And they told me to tell Sonic, but I just… couldn't. He had already been through so much, I didn't want to put him through more strain. Being alone in a room listening to those two discussing about how they fought because of unresolved feelings for him was going to destroy the little mental health he had."

"So you like… kept him from going or something?"

"I told Sonic that Amy and Shadow had talked it out already, and I told them Sonic said he thought they could solve that on their own. _I_ thought they could, but now…"

"I think this is the perfect time for that talk."

"Huh?"

Jet could hear the sound of Tails moving until he eventually appeared in front of him. He looked equal parts incredulous and worried.

"But that… that would probably end the trip right here. There's no guarantee Sonic is going to be okay after that. Sonic is just going to hate me if he finds out what I did…"

"Would you rather him find one day by accident or with you telling him?"

"I guess!" Tails blurted, looking embarrassed by how loud that came out. "Wouldn't you rather wait until the end of the trip, though?"

"The sooner it happens, the less likely Sonic is to find out about this whole thing on his own." Jet crossed his arms over his chest. This felt good, he was actually having a say in how things went for once!

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Tails sketched a tired smile and offered a hand to help Jet get back on his feet, which the hawk promptly accepted. "Do you want to… y'know, help me talk to them?"

Jet hesitated for a moment, raising a hand to the underside of his beak. "I mean… it's sorta not my business. I want to be there for when the talk actually happens, but right now me being there wouldn't matter a whole lot."

"That's fair, yeah. Oh! You should probably go hang out with Charmy then. I sorta just… left him there. He must be getting worried by now…" Tails bit his lip. "I know we agreed to no more hiding, but… can you not tell any of this to Charmy? I don't want this whole thing to also affect him."

Jet raised an eyebrow. "I thought the lesson was that you should stop hiding things from people. He deserves to know why the trip got cancelled if it does come to that."

Tails let out a loud sigh. "Fine, fine. Just don't make it sound like any of this is his fault. I'll be right back! Oh, Sonic also told me to go grab your board for you, Charmy and I were taking turns riding it before I came here."

"You were WHAT?!" Jet shot him a quick glare and ran as fast as he could back to the master emerald altar.

Just in time to catch the bee doing some sick tricks! He was able to use the makeshift stone pillar bridge's very tiny incline to gain massive height with the help of his wings – and he also nailed the landing. He was speeding up towards Jet with an impressive acceleration rate before he suddenly slipped off the board. Both the gear and Charmy went flying in opposite directions, with the former bouncing harmlessly against the grass and the latter blasting off towards Jet with his stinger facing the hawk.

Jet yelped and managed to grab Charmy by the waist before impact – the stinger coming _terrifyingly close_ to his chest.

"Just what you think you're doing?!" He immediately let go off Charmy and went to check on his board. No scratches or anything, just a depleted air tank. That was good! He then power-walked back to Charmy, who was still on the ground. "You can't just use my board while I'm out!"

"Chill! I know what I'm doing! You're speaking with the Grand Metropolis' three times junior extreme gear champion." Charmy fluttered his wings and got back on his feet, pumping his fist against his chest proudly.

Jet wasn't so impressed, however. "_Junior_."

"Well it's not my fault! Your board just gets all wobbly and weird once you go past a certain speed." Charmy puffed his cheeks.

"Of course it does, Wave made it so that only I know how to use it well. My board is custom made and not meant to be a toy for children!" Jet was clutching his extreme gear close to his chest as if it was a baby.

"I'm twelve! And…Is that allowed? I mean, disabling the safety measures so you can go faster." Charmy said with a raised eyebrow.

"Technically, yes. No one got hurt yet so there's no need for regulations against it." Jet shrugged.

"Oh, cool! Do you think Wave can do that to my board if I ask?"

"No way in hell."

"Oh well, I tried."

Jet walked towards the edge of the water and sat down, taking off his footwear before dipping his feet in the stream with his board on his lap. Charmy followed, sitting down right beside him.

"So… Were you and Amy fighting?" Charmy asked, rocking his legs back and forth in the water.

"No, it was Shadow and Amy."

"Oh! Can I see?"

"No. They were arguing, not beating each other up. Not very entertaining."

"Oh, okay. Are they gonna be alright?"

"I hope so, Tails said he'd take care of it. We might have to go back home if he can't do it, though."

"That's alright by me. I trust Tails, he's a responsible guy." Charmy nodded, then got up again. "Can you show me what your board is like at max speed?"

"Only if you defend me from Knuckles if I accidentally mess up his flowers." Jet didn't wait for an answer before he started clothing himself again. Charmy agreed, and they were off to the grassy field again.

* * *

"How did you two manage to get this wet?"

Evening had almost arrived by the time Jet and Charmy reunited with the rest of the group. With Knuckles' permission, they gathered enough wood for a small campfire. Tents and sleeping bags had been organized earlier, and if everything went right then Jet would be sleeping with Sonic yet again. He'd be thrilled about that, if not for… everything else going on.

Shadow and Amy were… sitting beside each other, which was already a really big improvement from what was going on between them earlier. Tails sat between Sonic and Charmy and looked like he was trying his hardest to hold it together. Knuckles was rummaging through the food Sonic had brought out of the airship in search of something unfrozen enough to be cooked at the campfire.

"Charmy convinced me to let him ride on my board over the river. He fell in a lot."

"The more you fall, the more you learn!" The bee said proudly, currently sharpening a stick into some sort of makeshift skewer. "That's how it is with most things in life."

"Even with airplane piloting?" Tails interjected, raising an eyebrow with a smirk.

"You tell me, you're the expert." Both teens got a laugh out of that. The mood was starting to feel much lighter already! Except for _those two_. They looked like they were trying their best to avoid acknowledging each other. Or keep their eyes on Sonic for too long.

Jet looked like he was holding it together, but he was actually the most nervous of them all. Before everyone grouped up, he had a quick chat with Tails to define how the talk with Sonic was supposed to go. Knuckles was also in on the plan – he would call Jet and Charmy to help him with whatever in some other part of the island. They had initially planned for it to be after dinner, but it didn't look like the two hedgehogs wouldn't be able to hold it together until then.

Jet was having a sort of glare and lip-reading contest with Knuckles as a silent way of arguing. Jet wanted to be able to eat at least one bite of sausage on the stick, but the echidna was having none of that. He decided to use the pot Sonic brought to make stew – something that would take way longer and thus would justify their prolonged absence from the campsite.

"Jet, Charmy. I need you two's help to get some berries for our dessert." _That_ was the best excuse he could come up with? Lame, but Sonic fell for it so it'd have to do. Jet exchanged a brief nod with Tails before he and Charmy got up and followed behind Knuckles.

"So, what kind of berries are they? Blueberries? Cranberries? Pineapples? I know pineapples are berries too, I'm the best at trivia that makes you have an existential crisis." Charmy flew besides Knuckles as they went… somewhere, but got no response.

Jet was getting a bit worried of the group still being able to hear them, so he replied instead. "I'm gonna ignore that last one and say we're going for some strawberries. I've seen plenty of other red fruits out there."

"Did you know strawberries are not actually b—"

"Didn't ask!"

That actually got a laugh out of Knuckles, surprisingly, and they had no issue walking around and… behind the master emerald altar? Jet took a quick glance at Charmy, but the bee didn't look nearly as confused as he was – or at all! Did they plan this beforehand without him? It wouldn't be the first time, but still. Knuckles wasn't even there when they discussed the plan! _That was such a dick move_, Jet thought.

"Good news, ET. You're getting what you came here for."

It took a while for Jet to notice, but the wall that they were standing in front of wasn't completely smooth. Rather, it had a series of inscriptions carved onto the stone bricks. When gently touched in the correct order, some of the bricks got loose. With a minimal-force punch, Knuckles was able to knock out all the loose bricks and reveal a passageway into the back of the altar into the dark unknown.

"Wait, wait! Right now? I don't… I…" Jet put a hand to his head. Out of the things he was expecting, actually getting the treasure they came here for was definitely not one of them. Charmy was excited to go in, and Knuckles himself looked like he was regretting his decision by the second. But him? He wasn't so sure about it, for once in his life.

"Yeah? So what? It's not like their… thing involves you anyways." Knuckles gestured awkwardly to the stone bricks on the ground around them. "I'm doing all this for you. I could feel something was wrong way before I knew exactly what went down between Shadow and Amy, and you cooperated with everyone without being a selfish prick. The Jet I used to know would never do that."

"But…how…? You weren't even there, you were watering the plants with Sonic or whatever!"

"_Chaos is power, power is enriched by the heart_." Knuckles recited. "The master emerald lets me sense the emotions of everyone inside the island. But even if it can sense guilt, it's not a very good lie detector on its own. That's why I sent Charmy to interrogate you."

"I'm a member of the Chaotix Detective Agency after all!" Charmy reached into his jacket pocket and handed Jet a business card. "I didn't even have to use any of my skills though, you just sort of told me everything! I confirmed with Tails just to be sure, of course."

"It's your choice. We can put the door back together and go harvest some pineapples. Or we go down, take the one hour long lift ride and get you some loot."

"One **HOUR**?! But… They'll have finished the talk by the time we're back, that's two hours plus however long we take in there!"

Jet felt like he was about to explode from many different emotions. He was angry Knuckles and Charmy were testing him like that. He was happy to be able to get one more treasure out of the list. He was worried about how Sonic and the others were doing back at the campsite. And he was unsure and anxious about what path was the right one to pick.

"I want to be there for Sonic, but…" Jet put his hands in front of his beak – more out of habit than actual embarrassment, "…what if I don't belong there right now? I don't want to risk making things worse, but what if he needs someone to help him cope if the conversation goes badly…?"

His hands went to his eye, trying to prevent a headache he knew was coming. Knuckles remained silent with his arms crossed for a little before placing a hand on Jet's shoulder, followed by Charmy's on the other. He wasn't sure if that was also the power of the master emerald, but that made him feel a little better. Not less anxious or depressed, but more confident in the choice he was about to make.

"I don't deserve to be there right now, let's go in."

Jet led them into the passageway, the stone brick wall reforming behind them after the last in line took their first step inside. The walls were an unnaturally smooth dark gray color, with a metallic smell to match. On them were lines that would soon light up in neon blue to lead them into a wider room with what was unmistakably a lift. An ancient high tech one, but still a lift.

Knuckles got in last, and pressed the only button on the device's control panel. He wasn't kidding about an one hour ride, that thing went _slow_. That, combined with the silence and the lack of any light whatsoever on the elevator shaft, made it difficult to tell if they were actually going anywhere once the hallway was out of view. Knuckles reassured them that they were, though, as he could feel himself growing more distant from the master emerald.

And what an hour that was. Jet had finished questioning his decision on the first ten minutes of the ride, with the rest being spent on listening to Knuckles and Charmy making berry puns at each other to try and cheer Jet up. It didn't _really_ work, but he was willing to appreciate their effort and even joined in after the forty-minute mark – much to their dismay, since his berry puns weren't the best.

But alas, an hour eventually passed. They could see a faint blue light coming from down below. More lines on more metallic walls, inside an equally tight room. This one was two people wide, so Jet and Knuckles were able to stand side by side comfortably with Charmy flying behind them.

They were led to what appeared to be a door, highlighted by the same wall-lights but in their deactivated state. To their left was something akin to a bowl or a sink, with some sort of metallic pipe running through the wall in front of them.

"Did you know this was here the whole time? And you never figured out how to open it." Jet raised an eyebrow at the echidna.

"Trust me, I've tried. I've tried putting pretty much everything in this thing, including the juice of every single fruit in this island. I was hoping you could help me figure out what that means," Knuckles pointed at the side of the receptacle with his fist, "it's probably our best bet for unlocking this door."

Indeed, there was something engraved there in a language that Jet easily recognized as ancient Babylonian script. He tried to see if he could translate it from memory, but then remembered Wave's translation orb that was still wrapped around his neck.

All he had to do was gently wave the orb in front of the inscription. It started glowing as soon as he did, and within seconds a small holographic screen projected itself from the device, with only three possible translations available.

_Blood. Bloodshed. To shed (blood)._

Jet and Knuckles simply stared at each other for a moment.

"There you go, that's the one thing you haven't tried. Do you think it needs uh… Echidna blood maybe?" Jet finally stammered out.

"The Babylonians built this place, it would make more sense if it required the blood of one of them." Knuckles shrugged.

"I-I mean, do we even know if we really do need to put blood on this thing? What if we accidentally end up jamming the door with it?"

"If it can take orange juice with extra pulp without jamming, it can take blood. And it does look kind of like a funnel, you can't deny something liquid is supposed to go in it." Knuckles gestured towards the receptacle.

"Oh my God if you two pussies don't bleed on that sink then I will and I'll tell everyone you made me do it." Charmy huffed, crossing his arms over his chest.

That seemed to do the trick for Knuckles. Without warning, he took off one of Jet's gloves and made a small cut on his own arm with one of his talons. He quickly brought his arms above the receptacle and let the drops pour in one by one. It took about ten seconds of painfully slow dripping before something happened. The lines running from the pipes to the wall started glowing a faint red, and the previously locked door started to move.

Inside was a pedestal, and upon it was a golden circlet adorned with a crescent-shaped gray gem. Jet carefully entered the cramped chamber and examined the place for traps before confirming they were free to take their (debatably) hard-earned treasure. But he wasn't so sure about it.

"That's… not a part of the set." Jet furrowed his brows, taking the circlet it in hands. It had a smooth texture, with no rust or cracks despite how old it was supposed to be. The gem looked… fake? Like a synthetic, lab-grown gemstone. Or a gem-shaped LED display.

"What are you talking about? It's ancient and it's Babylonian, how is this not what you were looking for?" Knuckles stared at him with disbelief.

"Yeah, but it's not like… one of the treasures we thought we were chasing after. I hope it works as intended, at least…" Jet took the object and put it over his head. Despite it being noticeably too small for anyone to wear when it was in his hands, it seemed to have subtly altered its shape so that it was a perfect fit. "Do you have like… a chant or something that's been passed down to the echidnas?"

"Woah woah woah! Slow down! You're saying this is the wrong treasure but now you want to use it?" Knuckles pointed a gloved fist at him.

"It's not going to make me explode or anything like that, you slow down! I just want to see if it works." Jet rolled his eyes. "It's been under your temple for like, thousands of years and you don't even know what it is? How's that possible?"

"Echidna tales very rarely refer to objects themselves, only to their power." He huffed, crossing his arms. "If you tell me what it does, I can figure out what it is. Simple as that."

"Yeah, I wanna see Jet's head explode too!" Charmy chimed in, getting a "not now" mouthed to him by Knuckles in return.

"It's supposed to make my head hurt so you can control me or something, I've only heard about it in the tales. I'm not supposed to _die_, that much I'm sure of. Now come on, say something. The door opened to you, it should listen to you as well."

Knuckles was reluctant, but after constant bugging from Charmy he finally agreed to try it out. He took a few steps back – urging the bee to do the same – and started reciting Tikal's prayer:

"_The servers are the seven Chaos. Chaos is power, power is enriched by the heart. The controller is the one that unifies the Chaos_."

For a moment, nothing happened. Jet was about to be really bummed out that, on top of being the wrong treasure, it was one that didn't have the mystical properties it was fabled to have. But then, the gem in the middle of the circlet started to glow a faint emerald green color. It filled the gem from bottom to top, almost like a loading bar.

And when it was done, Jet fell to his knees while clutching his head, groaning in extreme pain. Possibly the worst pain he had ever felt and would feel in his whole life. It was all he could focus on – he was forced to focus on it. He could barely even keep himself breathing. The little willpower he had left was spent trying to take the object off. It looked like he was putting his full strength into it, but the circlet still wouldn't budge.

Charmy was the first one to snap into action. He grabbed onto the circlet's gem and tried to fly away with it as hard as he could, but once again it simply wouldn't budge. Knuckles quickly joined in after gently pushing the bee aside. He prepared himself to pull that thing off as hard as he could… but was met by little to no resistance.

Jet immediately stopped clutching his head and fell onto the ground while panting heavily. As sudden as it came, the pain was gone. He had barely even a memory of what that felt like, and would have doubted he actually felt any pain at all – if Charmy and Knuckles weren't looking at him like they saw a ghost.

"Are you alright?!" Knuckles was torn between helping him up and letting him rest on the ground for a couple more minutes.

"I feel I got my brain thrown out of the airship and then replaced with Storm's." Jet stared at both mobians with a blank expression. "Did you figure out what that is?"

"Hm… I think so. I heard stories of some people trying to replicate the master emerald's powers. This must have been one of the attempts – and a pretty good one at that. I couldn't _sense_ you at all."

"_Sense_ me?" Jet inquired, deciding to get on his feet.

"I told you I can feel people's emotions with the help of the master emerald. I couldn't feel you at all. It was like that thing drained you of all your chaos energy. It could be powerful enough to even destabilize a super form…" Knuckles raised a hand to his chin, pondering.

Charmy took the opportunity to snatch the circlet out of his other hand and put it onto his own head – again, a perfect fit. He looked rather proud of himself. "So, if you don't say the thing, then it's just a tiara that can fit on everyone that tries to wear it? Sounds like a pretty big treasure to me!"

"Charmy, take that thing out of your head!" Knuckles groaned, pointing a fist at him.

"Why? It's not like you can recite the entire prayer by accident." He stuck his tongue out. Knuckles slowly lowered his first, as he couldn't argue with that.

"Are you letting me keep it?" Jet asked. He was trying not to sound too hopeful, but it was still really apparent that he wanted to keep the magical tiara that gave him the worst migraine in the world. "I mean… this was obviously here for a reason. And it was meant to be opened by the echidnas too. Maybe in case something happens with the master emerald?"

"I'm tempted to say no," Knuckles began, "but right now, I have no use for it. The master emerald is whole, Eggman is MIA and nobody is abusing their chaos power for evil, as far as I can feel it. You go ahead and keep it in case you need an instant headache for whatever reason."

"Are...are you sure, though?" Jet looked almost sad. "This is not another test, right? You're not gonna punch my beak off if I try to keep it?"

"The fact that you're _asking _me if you can keep it is already a pretty good indicator of your worthiness. Like I said, nothing like the Jet I used to know." Knuckles gave him a reassuring smirk.

"Can I even use it though? I'm not sure if echidnas are the only ones able to activate it with the prayer."

"Only one way to find out, _Flicky_!" Charmy taunted.

Needless to say, the hour-long small talk on the lift ride back to the surface was completely devoid of Charmy. He was curled down on the floor recovering from the experience, even if all the pain was interrupted after only two seconds of him wearing the circlet.

The stone bricks were still closed once they reached the surface, but that wasn't something a "gentle push" from Knuckles couldn't solve.

The cold outside air brought Jet back to the _real world. _The world of airships, campsites and hedgehogs. The world he had abandoned for two hours just so he could get one last thrill before going back home and cramming himself up in his apartment to never leave until his racing ban was lifted.

That's what Jet would do, right? At this point, not even he knew. That single massive burst of pain cleared him of all his anxieties, but also his ambitions. He was a blank slate, ready to be painted with whatever was most convenient for its painter.

"Okay, I know I didn't say much down there, but that. Was. Amazing!" Charmy suddenly exploded with happiness, forcefully yanking the metaphorical mental paintbrush away from Jet for a moment.

"...You think so?" Was all the hawk managed to say in response.

"Yeah, totally! Solving crimes as a detective is nice and all, but it's nice to have something like this once in a while. Like a… Like a premade adventure!"

"I don't think I get the analogy." Knuckles chimed in, having finished reassembling the stone wall to its most solid state.

"Like… Vector says the job of a detective is to put together clues in order to make up a path to the truth." Charmy gestured as if he was building something with Lego.

"But this? Like, treasure hunting and stuff? It's like the path is already made, you only have to blow the dust off it! It's like a lighter version of detective work."

"I see… That does make sense. Like the ancients themselves have set up a millenia-long game of hide-and-seek. You only need to sharpen your senses enough to hear someone giggling from being a tree about how clever they think they're being." Knuckles' analogy got a laugh out of Charmy.

"Chaos, _you're _the ancient around here. But yeah, just like that" Charmy nodded happily. "Um… You okay, Jet? You haven't said anything in a while."

Jet was busy having the biggest epiphany he's had all week.

All this time, Jet has been trying to separate the old Jet from the new Jet. The old Jet liked adventure, risks and rewards. The new Jet prefers the safe thrill of competitive racing, of comfortable friendships and warm hedgehogs. Both versions of himself seemed like complete opposites to him at first glance, but now he realized that wasn't the case.

They are simply two different ways of coming across the same path. The path of freedom, independence, _speed._ The path of self-improvement and personal identity. The path to belong somewhere and be someone.

And the thing was: those paths were parallel to each other, but not far apart. He could freely travel from one to the other whenever the one he was trailing didn't feel like the right way to go anymore.

To master the wind, one should learn to not get carried away by it. But instead, to use its momentum to achieve a goal in the same direction as it blew.

It sounded like a pretty good metaphor to him, at least.

"...You think we should put the headache tiara on him again to snap him out of it?"

"No, he's probably like this _because _of that thing. I think we should just knock him out and let him get some shut-eye."

"I'M AWAKE! I'M AWAKE NOW DON'T TOUCH ME!" Jet blurted out, jumping back a fair distance away from the two mobians. "I was just thinking, okay? I really liked your analogy, Charmy."

"Really?!" Charmy's eyes lit up. Jet offered him a warm smile and patted his helmet.

"Really, I think it's gonna help me a lot from now on." He then turned to Knuckles. "We should probably go see how the others were doing."

Knuckles nodded, and so the three of them were walking back to the campsite. The echidna was halfway through saying something about how he had eaten all of the pineapples when they noticed there was no one there. The campfire looked like it had been put out recently, as it still had a faint smell of smoke. The tents had been undone, and neither the hedgehogs nor Tails where anywhere to be found.

That instantly filled Jet with anxiety, multiple worst outcomes crossing his mind at once. But he was relieved to hear Knuckles could sense something from where the airship was. And so they went once again, crossing the woods towards the edge of the island.

Amy and Shadow were standing in front of the airship's lowered ramp. They were talking and smiling! That instantly washed all of Jet's anxieties away… Even if Sonic was nowhere to be found. They were quick to notice the approaching group, turning to face them with melancholy in their expressions.

"Let me guess, Charmy started a two hour argument on what is and isn't a berry." Shadow said with a smirk. It would be hard to tell he was joking without it.

"Something like that, yeah!" Charmy giggled, retrieving the circlet from is jacket pocket and placing it onto Jet's head. "Bow down to the new king of the echidnas."

"So you did find something, huh? I'm glad." Amy had a small smile on her face.

"Is everything alright?" Jet wasn't in the mood for slowly threading his way around the elephant in the room. He wanted to confront it.

"Everything's sorted. It took a while, but it's done." Amy nodded, releasing a breath she didn't realize she was holding.

"Where's Tails and Sonic?" Knuckles asked.

"Tails went to bed. We have decided to go back home, right now. I hope Jet doesn't mind piloting for us—"

"Not at all."

"And I hope you don't mind our sudden leave, Knuckles. I deeply apologize for having caused such a ruckus while visiting your island. You must be able to feel just how _tired _we are, certainly."

"It's not an issue. If anything, I'm glad I was able to help somehow. Sorting one's emotions out in the presence of the master emerald is considered an honor to its guardian." Knuckles rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"Very well. And Sonic is…" Shadow trailed off, unsure of how to word it. Amy picked up after him.

"He has a lot to deal with right now." Amy turned her gaze to Jet. "Usually, I'd say Sonic needs to be alone for tonight. But I think you might be the thing he needs right now."

Jet's heart was almost melting at that wholesome little sentence — until he had a realization.

"Wait… DID YOU GUYS TELL SONIC ABOUT—" Amy rescued out to force Jet's beak shut with a and, bringing the other to her lips to shush him.

"You're going to wake up Tails!" Amy released his beak once he had calmed down enough. "No, we specifically avoided telling him about your crush on him. We didn't want to ruin your confession, it's supposed to be a very personal moment."

So Tails kept his promise, huh? That was nice.

"Just don't do it now, if you can help it." Shadow quickly interjected. "He already has a lot on his mind."

"Don't worry. I do too." Jet nodded.

They shared goodbyes, and everyone except for Knuckles retreated into the airship. The first thing Jet did after retreating the ramp was standing in front of his bedroom door. He _knew _Sonic was in there. But he needed to put the ship in motion first. So he did, manually piloting until the opportunity to activate autopilot came. Then he was right back at that door.

Jet didn't know what compelled him to open the door so quickly, but that was what he did. A blue figure was sitting by the floor next to the bottom bunk, facing away from the door. Jet could hear little sniffles coming from him, but those stopped as soon as he closed the door behind them. Both of them were left in complete darkness. It took a little while for Sonic to realize who had just entered the room.

"Oh, hey Jet." He could make out the sight of Sonic wiping his eyes. "Busy night, huh?"

"Very." Jet, respecting Sonic's need for space, decided to go straight for the top bunk after removing his shoes, gloves and the circlet off.

"Are you… doing well?" It felt _foreign_, to ask how Sonic was doing. To want Sonic to be alright. The words didn't feel right in his mouth just yet.

"I'm managing. You know what they say, the first step to fixing your problems is admitting you have 'em. And oh boy do I got an armful." Sonic let out a weak snicker.

"It's progress." Jet replied nonchalantly.

"Yeah yeah, I'm on the right path now. No more avoiding, no more hiding. It's finally time to deal with it and carry on."

Sonic paused.

"Hey, you know. I'm really sorry for ruining the trip and all that. I'm like, a really big mess right now. Maybe if—"

"Shut up."

Both of them fell into silence after that. Jet hurried to explain himself as soon as he realized the words that had just left his mouth.

"I mean, don't say that you idiot. The trip isn't ruined."

"It's not?" Sonic asked. Jet wasn't so sure if that was a rhetorical question or not, until he spoke up again. "You know we're going home, right?"

"I know. I'm taking us there." Jet insisted. "It's _not _ruined, I promise. I had a lot of fun. Did you?"

"Yeah! I mean, it's been a fun almost-week. It's been almost two years since I've been in an adventure. I was craving for something like this."

"Then it was a good trip."

They fell into silence once again, but this time into a comforting one. The slight hum of the airship's engines filled their ears just enough to be soothing instead of annoying. They had passed through a gathering of clouds, and the moon was now visible through the bedroom's tiny window, shining its comforting light into the space.

"Hey, Jet?" Sonic began.

"Yeah?"

"I think I need some time for myself. After this." He paused. "It's not like you're not fun to hang out or anything, nothing like that! It's just…"

"I get you." Jet replied once Sonic's voice trailed off. "Take as much time as you need, Sonic."

"Thanks, Jet. I'm glad you understand." Sonic let out a sigh. "How about… a month? That's when our next race would be. I'm still up for it, are you?"

"What do you mean? Of course I am." Sonic could almost hear the shit-eating grin that was manifesting in Jet's face. "I'm not supposed to taunt you since you're not feeling well, but you know what's up. You're gonna eat dust."

"You wish!" Sonic blurted out as if all of his energy had returned just so he could pronounce those two words.

"That's the spirit" The two shared a laugh over that, and started to slowly drift off to sleep.

"... Hey Jet?"

"Yeah?"

"I can't wait."


	10. Deja Vu

"When Vanilla told me you had a tutor over, I thought it was something like algebra or literature."

What a sight it must have been for Amy to see Jet again – and at Cream's house of all places! They were by the living room, playing the one fighting game Vanilla allowed her to and eating popcorn on the couch. Jet was getting the beatdown of his life too, but that wasn't surprising. Cream always won whenever she and Amy played together.

"Oh, hello there Miss Amy! Jet is about to lose again, so you can play next if you'd like."

Jet was trying to focus on his screen as best as he could so he wouldn't have to look at Amy so soon. It had been barely two weeks since they had last interacted with each other back at Angel Island. Sure, things might have been sorted between her, Shadow and Sonic, but Jet had absolutely no idea where he factored in all of that. Probably somewhere in the neutral to mild annoyance zone, as Amy didn't even greet him by name.

"Hey Amy. Are you mad at me?" No better way to find out than asking! The worst that could come out of it was a _yes_ anyways.

"What? No, why would I be mad at you?" She shot him a confused glare – which he didn't notice because he was still losing at the fighting game. "I'm just surprised to see you here at Cream's house of all places."

"Long story. No time for th—" Cream had just used her super finishing move on Jet's character, even though he had less than 10% health points left. She was smiling and congratulating him, but he _knew_ she had styled on him on purpose. "Okay, now I have time for that."

Jet let out a defeated sigh and got up from the couch so Amy could have a match with Cream – not before grabbing one last handful of popcorn. Amy sat down in his place and made her usual choice of character – a projectile-based fighter that she'd use to delay getting combo-ed by Cream for as long as possible. That was smarter than Jet picking the worst character in the game just because they looked cool to him.

"I'm staying at Wave's apartment for a while because my therapist said I could use some more time with my friends." Jet watched the two of them play. Cream was getting visibly more upset each time her character got pushed away by a projectile.

"Uh-huh?" Amy was trying to keep her focus on both the game and Jet, which proved difficult since he was standing behind the couch now. "How does that lead you here, though?"

"Wave is making her own gear racing agency and she wanted to put me back on the radar with some sort of publicity stunt, so she came up with some tutoring program or whatever. Some kid named Ray was actually the first one to call about it, but Vanilla offered like five times the actual price so we went with that instead. I feel a little bad for him but money is money."

Ah yes, that made sense. Even though Vanilla was a somewhat strict parent, she always wanted the very best for her daughter whenever possible. And being tutored on extreme gear riding by the number one racer himself? That was possibly the best option she could go for – even if it meant using her mysteriously large savings to give Cream an advantage over other people.

"I'm surprised mom is letting me continue learning extreme gear, I thought she'd say it's too dangerous for me and make me learn regular skating instead." Cream had frustration in his voice which only Amy was able to pick up.

"So, did you guys start already?" Amy asked.

"Vanilla said we had to wait for you to arrive because she didn't trust that much just yet." Jet rolled his eyes. "I guess that means you're babysitting me too."

"_Terrific_."

"I'm older than you."

And just like that, Amy had lost her own match against Cream – who looked very relieved that the projectile spam hell was finally over. She got up and told them she was going to get dressed before rushing towards her bedroom. The living room fell into awkward silence as neither of the two mobians knew each other well enough nor had anything too interesting currently happening to bring up in small talk.

"Hey, uh… Jet?" Amy let out after a while. "I'm sorry for the whole… blowing up in front of you thing. Shadow was kind of right, I shouldn't have dragged you around and tried to force out your feelings for Sonic just because it was something I wanted."

"It's fine." Jet shrugged. He didn't really harbor any bad feelings from that moment aside from the initial shock. "It happens."

"But it shouldn't have to happen! I'll be more careful about that kind of stuff from now on, okay?" She offered him a small smile.

"Okay, sure. Wait, what do you mean from now on?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Trust me, Vanilla isn't letting you babysit cream on your own for at least another decade. That's almost how long I've been doing it for." She let out a chuckle.

Jet didn't mind it that much, especially now that the mood between them was much more relaxed. "Sure, that works for me. I'm not good at actual babysitting anyways, so if you could take care of that for me that'd be great. I mean, she's like what? Ten years old by this point?"

"_Twelve_."

"Twelve, who cares. She's old enough to not need a babysitter anymore, she can do stuff on her own."

"I mean, Vanilla is still constantly on her tail whenever she's capable of taking care of herself or not." Amy explained. "Which she _is_, of course. I'm mostly here to make her company and help with homework. She also plays with kids her age of course."

"_Chaos I wish that was me._"

"What?"

"What? I didn't say that out loud."

"Whatever, the point is," Amy paused for a little, as if she had forgotten what the point was, "that we're gonna be spending a lot of time together, so we might as well get comfortable with each other!"

"Uh, okay." Jet nodded. Amy kept staring at him expectantly. "What, like… now? I don't think these things happen that quickly."

"I meant that I want you to teach me how to improve my gear riding as well! Geez, I thought that was pretty obvious. That's like, all you do."

"…Oh!" How was he supposed to figure that out by himself! That comment was also not appreciated. "Yeah, sure, you can watch my lesson with Cream and try to follow along or something. I remember you being pretty okay at it though, I don't know if there's much you're gonna be able to take away from it."

"That's fine by me!" Amy nodded and smiled at him. "I've never really had any… formal training, I guess you could say. I tried it at Twinkle Park's attraction of the month thing a couple years back and then just followed video tutorials after I bought my own board."

"Doesn't matter where you got your learning from, if you ended up learning something then it was a valuable experience." Who knew repeating things his mother had told him ages ago would make him sound so smart?

They could hear the sound of footsteps drawing closer, and then Cream was among them wearing the same outfit she wore when she practiced with Jet by the airship. She had her gear skates on her hands and a big smile on her face.

"Miss Amy is going to be joining us? That sounds like a lot of fun!"

"Mhm. By the way, you won't be needing these," Jet shook his head whole pointing to her gear, "I brought you something better. Come on, let's go already. Don't want to waste any more of your time."

Jet grabbed his board and the three of them headed out, walking through the streets of Grand Metropolis until they reached a very tall building. It was covered from top to bottom with glass, making it completely see through. When they walked in Jet handed his ID to the person in the counter and she pointed them towards a futuristic-looking elevator at the end of the hall. It was also mostly see-through, and it only had two buttons that led to the ground and top floor.

"Jet, where are you taking us?" Amy tried not to look at her surroundings too much as Jet pressed the button that would take them to the top. "I thought you were taking us to like… a warehouse, or a gym, or something like that."

"That's what a bad teacher that wasn't paid five times the expected amount would do." Jet scoffed. "I rented the light roads with Wave's money…and permission, of course."

"Huh? Aren't those only for public events or big ceremonies?" Cream asked.

"Normally, yeah. Wave has a big presence on here though, so she can do whatever she wants as long as it's barely legal." Both girls went _"oooh"_ in unison.

"Besides, this is pretty much one big ad campaign. If you saw someone racing extreme gear on the light roads, you'd probably want to buy one too."

After a couple of minutes, the elevator reached the top floor of the building. They found themselves in a small room with a locker, bathroom and a steel-reinforced door that led to the outside – despite how high up they were. Jet headed to the locker first, and took out an extreme gear board. It was smaller than average to match Cream's height, but nothing else about its shape was out of the ordinary. Its center was red and yellow, the edges were colored in a lighter yellow much like Cream's fur and the nose of the board had a pastel pink mark on it.

Jet handed the board to Cream, receiving an excited gasp in return. "I don't have enough experience with gear skates to teach you with those, it's easier for you to learn how to ride on a board. This one's free of charge – doesn't do anything special but it's still high quality and custom made. You can upgrade it or get a new one with Wave once you've got enough experience."

"Thank you so much, mister Jet!" Cream smiled and gave him a tight hug before inspecting her board. "I know how to balance on it, I've tried on Charmy's board before. It shouldn't slow down our lessons too much."

"Oh, um… I forgot I don't have my board here. It's all the way back in Station Square…" Amy frowned.

Cream handed over her skates. "You can try these on! They were a little too big for me anyways, so they might be a good fit on you."

Amy sat down on a nearby bench to put them on. It was a tight fit, but it was still comfortable enough for her to be okay with using it to reach dangerously high speeds. "Thanks Cream! I owe you one."

Jet waited for both of them to get ready before heading towards the door. He had to input a code on the small keypad beside it for it to open. It led to a small platform outside of the building.

Ahead of them, a set of red railings seemingly floating in midair extended deep into the city. A couple of seconds after the door opened a light blue translucent path zapped into existence in between them. Jet was the first one to step onto it, his boots making a strange and unnatural clanking sound as they hit the solidified light. An extensive safety net was placed under the whole path, protecting them from plummeting into the city down below in case of a mishap.

"Cream, you go first. Amy can go behind me, I need to have Cream in my line of sight at all times so I can give her advice."

"Fine by me." Amy nodded. Cream went ahead and walked a few meters in front of Jet.

"Today's lesson is drifting. The secret is shifting your whole body towards the side you want to drift, but not shifting your foot stance too much." Jet explained. "Do keep in mind that drifting consumes quite a lot of air, that's why there's an air refueling station right after each curve. If this was a race I'd advise against stopping by those, but there's no ramps or anything here so it's your only option. Also, there's another task for you by the stops, but it doesn't have much to do with racing."

Cream looked confused at that last part, but nodded and smiled anyways. Jet gave her permission to go whenever she was ready. She took a deep breath, counted to five and got a running start before jumping onto her new board. She was quite clumsy at first, Jet noted. The weight difference between that and the board she claimed she rode before must have been quite significative, since it looked like she was struggling to keep herself agile.

But Cream managed to get used to the weight and feel of her board soon enough, thankfully. She hovered around in a zigzag pattern to test out her limits. Jet had done a few laps with that board beforehand (not a fun experience, it was too small for him) to get a feel for the air tank and be able to keep track of it while Cream rode. If he had been calculating it right, she would have enough air to go in a straight line without boosting for quite a while.

And more than enough to make the curve that was up ahead of them. It was the first of many, so it was quite lenient with spacing. He closed the gap between them a little more so he would be able to see Cream's form as she passed behind a skyscraper during her drift. A couple of meters after that curve, the road led them to a platform (also made of the same light-like material as the roads) close to a blank billboard. A blue spray paint can rested on it. Cream had stopped on it to investigate, and Jet and Amy followed right behind her.

"Do I have to… paint?" Cream asked, turning to look at Jet.

"Not the whole thing of course, just doodle something on it. Just keep it E for Everyone please. There's ten of those in total, so you might as well think of what you're going to draw during the straight-line sections of the road." Jet explained, turning to talk to Amy while Cream pondered about her art.

"How was that? Pretty easy, I'm assuming."

"I almost fell." Amy was panting like crazy. "These skates are so light! I went for the drift with my board's weight in mind and ended up almost running out of the track because I started turning too early."

"Oh." Jet scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. He hadn't planned for her to say something like that. "Well… you have nine more drifts to get used to it. Cream can pull you back on track if you do end up falling, so don't worry too much about it."

Both of them turned their heads at the sound of paint being sprayed. She was careful to get the basic shapes right first try, probably because there was no way to erase the lines once she sprayed them. The result came out pretty good in Jet's opinion: a little smiling normal chao! Amy seemed to be proud of Cream's graffiti as well, but Cream herself didn't look so satisfied.

"That's not really how I imagined it would look like…" The rabbit frowned, putting the can back in its original position. "Are you sure it's okay to have this exposed to the whole city?"

"Mhm. Trust me, you'll get it when it's over." Jet nodded.

"Yeah, it doesn't look so bad!" Amy gave her a reassuring smile. "It's way better than some soulless advertisement."

"This is advertisement."

"Yeah, but it's not _soulless _because Cream made it."

"Whatever you say." Jet shrugged. "Cream, whenever you're ready."

Cream nodded and took a breath before they resumed the rest of the training. The path twisted and turned between the buildings in a chaotic fashion, seeking to simulate the different scenarios where different kinds of drifting would be required rather than form a cohesive racetrack-like shape. The turns became more angular, the road narrower and some stops required performing multiple tight turns in opposite directions. It was like a puzzle, where she would have to figure out when, where and for how long she should drift.

Cream had her first and only fall after stop number three. She pulled herself out of the safety net quickly due to her flight abilities, and got back on her feet even more determined to pass the challenges ahead of her. Jet gave her critique about her riding technique at each new graffiti stop, and she took it into consideration right away. It wasn't long before she started noticing and correcting her own mistakes, leaving Jet with not a lot to do besides watch and feel proud of himself.

Jet eventually let Amy position herself in between him and Cream so he could also criticize her form. The hedgehog still somewhat struggled with the skate-type gear but her past expensive compensated for it somewhat. She had two falls, one when her gear ran out of air during the triple drift in stop seven, and then on the very last challenge. Jet noted that her legs adapted much quicker to the tricky stance shifting required for some of those turns, probably due to her experience with martial arts.

Since Cream was such a fast learner, they had completed the whole course in less than half the estimated time. They decided to go again, with Jet in the front so that she could observe his technique and try to incorporate it into her riding style. That lap went even quicker, since all the billboards had already been filled out by different kinds of chao in different colors of spray paint. In the end, they had time for yet another lap — with Amy as the front runner so that both Jet and Cream could give her tips.

"Now is the part where I explain what that was all about." Jet began as soon as they stepped back into the building. "You notice how your chao graffiti became better and better as you drew them? That's because you practiced. The same thing happened with your extreme gear skills, you know."

"That's… Kind of shallow. So all that was just for the sake of saying practice makes perfect? Isn't that kind of obvious already?" Amy chimed in.

"I thought it was cute." Cream shrugged and smiled at Jet. "Thank you so much for teaching me, Mister Jet! This was really fun and I learned a lot."

"Of course you did, you had the best teacher around." Jet changed the subject before Amy could say something else to discredit him.

"I guess this is it, then? You got everything I had to teach you perfectly. That's a job done for me."

"Vanilla should be arriving from work soon, so my job is almost done as well." Amy said. "We'll still make you company until she gets home, okay?"

"Okay!" Cream cheered. They walked back home, but not before getting some ice cream and taking some pictures together (Amy's idea).

A couple people that identified themselves as fellow extreme gear riders recognized Jet and stopped the trio so they could have a chat with him or get his autograph. It was early evening by the time they had reached Cream's house, and Jet's ego was grander than the whole Metropolis. Vanilla had been parking her car by the driveway and came out to greet them.

"I'm glad to hear my little Cream had such a good time!" Vanilla smiled down at Jet. _Chaos she was so tall. _"I can tell even you got something out of it, Amy."

"Yeah, Jet was nice enough to help me out as well once Cream was done with the lesson." Amy nodded. She remembered she still had Cream's gear skates on her and quickly took them off and handed them over.

"Cream was my best student so far, ma'am. You should be proud of her." She was also his only student so far, but that was just a detail.

"I'm glad to hear, Jet. Did you know I was a skater when I was her age? That's why I wanted her to be able to enjoy something similar, despite how _dangerous _it is."

"I can handle danger, mom!" Cream puffed up her chest. "I've helped Sonic save the world before."

"I guess so. I should give you more credit for it, sweetheart." Vanilla ruffled her daughter's head with a small smile.

"So, I'll see you next week?" Jet asked.

Cream looked up at her mom to confirm it, and then nodded at at Jet. "Mhm! I can't wait to continue learning."

"I guess I'll be going too, it was pretty fun to watch over both of them." Amy gave Cream a small hug before turning to walk away. "Bye guys!"

Everyone bid farewell to each other and headed in different directions. Cream and Vanilla went inside their houses, Amy continued to walk along the street and Jet checked his phone before deciding where to go. A message from Wave was hidden among his usual notifications.

**[WavyMind]:** Hey, hope I'm not interrupting your tutoring.

**[WavyMind]:** Storm's mother called me, they're doing the wedding ceremony early. It's next month now.

**[WavyMind]:** You know you're his best man, right? You should come up with a speech. One that is more than three sentences long, preferably. This is a really important moment for him.

**[WavyMind]:** Also buy some snacks. We have guests over.

Jet chose to purposefully ignored the whole point of the message and focus on the last text. They had guests over? That was odd, Wave usually announced these things ahead of time. But he didn't think much of it. What he did think about was where the hell he'd find snacks. He didn't know the city well enough, he'd probably just end up lost and arriving home the very next day.

He turned his head. Amy's silhouette was still on the horizon, barely visible but still recognizable enough for him to decide to ride his board in her general direction while disregarding everyone else in that particular sidewalk. He got off his board a couple of feet away from the hedgehog, who had noticed him by that point.

"Amy do you know where I can buy snacks here?"

"Oh, sure! I'll take you there." No questions asked, huh? That's fair.

The two of them proceeded into the city as the night fell over them. They were making small talk by that point, way more comfortable with each other than before (even though Jet said it didn't happen that quickly). The topic of Sonic eventually came into the conversation because of course it did, and Jet had a confession to make.

"Hey, Amy?" Jet hesitated. Was he really about to confess that to someone? To Amy of all people?

Yes he was.

"I think… I think once things go back to normal with Sonic I'm going to… uh, go for it." He scratched the back of his neck. Chaos he was awkward. "I mean… I have to hang out with him a lot more before I even consider asking him out, but… Yeah, I made my choice."

Amy's face lit up. Like that was what she wanted to hear all along – even if a couple of weeks too late. "I'm glad to hear you're figuring yourself out!"

"And uh… I sorta need your help? Like, I actually need your help this time. I've never done anything like this before. Like, romantic."

"I'd be glad to help, Jet, but I really think you should talk to Shadow first. As soon as you do, I'll do my best to give you all the advice you need." She offered him a sweet smile. He nodded back at her and the subject was dropped for something that didn't make Jet want to ride on his extreme gear into the nearest wall.

Him and Amy parted ways once she pointed him to the small convenience store she usually went to whenever she was at Grand Metropolis for one reason or another. He ended up buying a handful of bags of chips, some microwave popcorn packets and a grape soda for Wave.

After some fussing with his phone's GPS app, Jet had arrived at Wave's apartment once again. He could hear loud music and singing coming from the other side of the door, so he made sure to knock extra loudly. Even through the noise, he was able to hear the sound of some very heavy footsteps coming his way. Whoever they had over must have made Wave really upset for her to stomp like that.

"Open up, it's me! I know I'm late but give me a break! I brought… chips?"

_That was definitely not Wave._

Glowing optics stared down at him, shining in a deep red much like the thing's broad metallic chest and arms. It had black on its shoulder plates, abdomen and feet. A mechanical clawed hand wrapped around his waist and threw him inside the room before he could even open his beak to scream.

He was thrown at the side of living room couch with just enough force to make his vision go dark for a second. When he came back to his senses, the metallic monster was right in front of him. Jet stared down into the black void of where the thing's hand used to be. He could hear the faint humming of machinery getting louder and louder. All he could do was brace himself for impact and hope whatever kind of bullet was coming his way missed his vitals.

_Pop!_

While the burst did make his ears start ringing, he was very pleased to find out that the particles hovering around him were not the pulverized and shredded remains of his skin and feathers – but, in fact, multicolored confetti.

"The chips have arrived." A robotic voice emerged from Omega's speakers. Wave, Rouge and Shadow looked down at Jet from the couch with varying levels of concern.

"The chips are probably crushed by this point, you big dummy." Rouge let out a sign and got up from the chair to retrieve the contents of Jet's grocery bag, which were now scattered across the room. She handed over the soda to Wave.

"Hey, thanks Jet!" Was all Wave said before taking a sip. Shadow was considerate enough to reach for the controller and pause the karaoke session.

"You didn't need to throw him so hard, Omega." Shadow commented, though it felt like he did so more out of politeness than legit concern for Jet.

"That is the lowest amount of force I can exert."

Wave and Rouge went back to singing before confirming the hawk was still alive and well. As well as he could be after all that. Shadow helped him up and brought him to a spare bedroom, closing the door behind him before laying him down on the bed.

"…Do I need to perform first aid?" Shadow could not identify any external injuries on Jet, and a quick scanning of his chaos energy proved nothing was wrong on the inside either.

"…'m fine." He stuffed an extra pillow over his face. That hurt like hell and he didn't want Shadow to see him tearing up. Not when they had important business to discuss.

"Shadow I need you to help me ask Sonic out."

He didn't hear anything besides faint breathing sounds coming from the hedgehog. He couldn't see Shadow's expression with that pillow on his face, but he could vaguely imagine the amount of confusion it probably contained.

"…I'm calling an ambulance just in case."


	11. It's almost a date (Reach for the Star)

"Tails, I'm home! I have the stuff you asked for. _All_ of it. Can you open the door for me please?"

Sonic was trying his best to restrain himself from trying to open the front door with his legs, since his arms were already busy (and aching from) holding all those boxes. He had done that in the past, and that got him a short trip to the hospital and having to wear a cast on his right leg for two months. And he couldn't stay in bed for two months right now, he had a race with Jet tomorrow! Thankfully Tails came to save him from his own hubris before he could even start lifting his leg.

"Let me help you with this." Tails grabbed two out of the four boxes he was carrying, making eye contact between the two possible at last. "I've seen that face before. You were about to—"

"I don't know what you're talking about, **buddy**." Sonic rolled his eyes and walked past Tails into the living room. He put his cargo down on the table and started removing its contents.

"Here's the parts you asked, here's the groceries, here's the… rocks? So you _were_ making me carry rocks all along?" Sonic alternated his incredulous stare between Tails and said rocks. They didn't feel that heavy, truth be told, but the absurdity of the situation was still funny to him.

"They're geodes, noodle arms. The place I usually buy quartz at is out of stock, but they do have some of these mystery geodes that may or may not have some."

"So you're gonna make me go get _more_ rocks if these don't have the thing you want?"

Tails simply shrugged. Sonic answered with a groan and continued to unpack everything. The remaining boxes Tails was bringing to the table contained some old video games and movies Tails _insisted_ on getting in physical format, as well as school supplies. A lot of school supplies. Folders, notebooks, pencils and rulers among other things. Most of which he already had spares of in his workshop, but he wanted to keep his engineering career and school life separate. And Sonic respected that, of course.

"By the way, your phone was ringing like crazy. You should probably check it out when you go upstairs." The fox suggested, separating which boxes stayed in the house and which he'd move to the workshop.

"Really? That's new. I thought everyone was busy today." Sonic didn't think much of it as he went to the kitchen to grab himself a glass of water. It was getting dark outside already. A soft breeze shook the potted plants just outside their kitchen window, blue and orange windflowers Amy had gifted them many years ago once they moved from South Island to their current home in Station Square.

Some pink roses and red crown-of-thorns were added to the makeshift garden a couple of years later, followed by black dahlias, lavender and lilies-of-the-valley. The latest addition to the bunch was a single Persian ivy sprout he had found growing by the Mystic Ruins waterfall the week prior. Sonic was unsure about keeping it there at first, since it's not a flower, but he quickly became fond of it as he watched it grow. He even cleared out the grass and weeds around it so that the vibrant green could stand out more!

But that wasn't the time to think about his plants, someone was blowing up his phone and he didn't want to leave them waiting in case it was an emergency.

Now just where did he leave his phone? Sonic was sure it was in his room, but that didn't say much. That place was a _mess_ with a capital M. Clothes everywhere, not a single part of the wall that wasn't covered in posters or sticky notes, and the little space he had to walk around on was made into an obstacle course by all the little trinkets he collected over the years but didn't want to store somewhere where he wouldn't be able to see them anymore.

That would require _advanced tactics_.

"Tails, can you call my phone for me please?" Sonic shouted, hoping his little brother was still somewhere in the house and not in his workshop. He waited for a full minute and was about to lose hope, when he heard a rumble. A muffled song he'd heard nowhere in particular and decided it was enough of a banger to replace his previous ringtone with. Coming from… his night stand, under the pair of gloves he forgot to put on before heading out to shop. Nice going, _hero_.

The usual notifications littered his lock screen. Mostly spam, some flower pictures Mighty started sending him daily after their meeting in Angel Island, a new video from a cooking channel Sonic promised himself he'd try one of the recipes from one day, and the ever-present low battery alert.

And ten to fifteen text messages from Jet. Most of them were just "hey".

**[HAWK]:** okay you're probably busy or whatever so I'll just type it for you to read later

**[HAWK]:** I know you said you wanted space until tomorrow but I got something special planned for tonight if you're up to it

**[HAWK]:** even ran it by the shadow guy if that means anything to you

**[HAWK]:** uhhhh I don't think this place has a name so I'll send the coordinates

**[HAWK] **_**sent a location!**_

**[HAWK]:** meet me there at 7 pm if you're not a coward

**[HAWK]:** I dunno how long its gonna last but like we'll stay there until 1 am minimum

**[HAWK]:** don't bring tails sorry nothing against the guy but I only planned it for two people

**[HAWK]:** also bring your board of course who do you think I am hedgehog

**[HAWK]:** okay bye gotta go

…

Sonic immediately hushed back to the living room, and then up to Tails' bedroom. The fox couldn't even get a word in before Sonic practically shoved the phone in his face. He just needed, _craved_ for confirmation that he had read that _amazing_ string of messages with his own two eyes.

"Tails, does this look…?"

"Suspicious as hell? You bet, yeah." Tails furrowed his eyebrows, confirming they were in fact reading the same thing.

"Do you think… Eggman stole his phone or something like that?" Sonic asked. Tails just shrugged and went back to putting his newly acquired school supplies on the shelves of his infinitely more organized room.

"Nah, Jet is just like that sometimes."

Tails couldn't see it, but Sonic's face pretty much went through all five stages of grief and then some more. But in the end, it still landed on acceptance.

"I guess Jet _is_ just like that sometimes."

* * *

Sonic was glad his phone still had enough signal for him to use the GPS app, because oh boy was he lost. Everything looked the exact same around him: river, grass, cliff, rock. Rinse, repeat, shuffle, repeat again. It was a labyrinth of green and brown that got even harder to navigate due to the sun not being out anymore.

So hard, in fact, that Sonic almost failed to see Jet right in front of him. Looking _quite unamused_, he might add. Sonic's little hedgehog nose was pretty much touching the tip of his beak. He had to take a step back before Jet would speak in an equally unamused tone.

"I've been waving at you for like five minutes, hedgehog." Jet was holding his board firmly against his side.

"Come on, give me a break! I'm not late, am I? I'm here five minutes before the time you set, in fact."

"And you'd be fifty minutes late if you hadn't bumped into me by complete accident. I think that should make me the winner of today's race by default, but I'm feeling charitable today so you get another chance to prove yourself."

Yep, that was Jet alright. No Eggman decoy would be able to replicate the particular way Jet managed to get under his skin just like that. It almost reminded him of Shadow's taunting, even if Jet's language wasn't nearly as… flowery, for the lack of a better word, it managed to rile him up just as much. But in a good way, if there was even one.

"You want to get rid of me so fast after making me run all the way here? Attitude of a coward, if you ask me." Sonic placed one hand on his neck, the other holding onto his extreme gear. "So what's the plan for tonight, Flicky? Are you taking me on a moonlit date? I didn't take you for the romantic type."

For just a brief moment, Sonic could see a glimpse of something other than friendly rivalry flash across the hawk's face. But it went by too quick for him to decode it. Jet opened his beak to retort but the words took a full five seconds to come out. Which probably meant Sonic had made a good jab at him!

"_You wish_, hedgehog. We're doing a marathon. Five hours from here to the finish line, no breaks." Jet stepped out of the way to reveal a little picnic basket and blanket placed at the side of the tree Jet had been leaning against. "We have fifteen minutes to eat. Any more and we'll miss it."

"You're not making a very good case against this being a date, you know that? And miss what exactly?"

Jet never gave him a reply, so he just went ahead and sat down by the picnic blanket. Sonic was the first to unveil the contents of the basket: two water bottles and a couple of handmade sandwiches. He went ahead and took a bite out of one of them. Pretty good! He could tell Jet was the one that assembled them, they had the same spice mix Jet put on everything he cooked back at the airship.

"Oh man, I know I'm supposed to not be eating too much right now but these are so good!"

Sonic was talking with his mouth full. Which wasn't an issue here, since Jet did the same thing.

"That's the last meal you'll have before your most crushing defeat so far, so enjoy it." Jet only took a few seconds to be done with his whole meal before he was up and doing some stretches. They still had about ten minutes to go, so Sonic took his time appreciating both the food and Jet's company.

It was rare for them to hang out outside of racing. That one trip had been the outlier – an attempt to get some quality time with one of his favorite rivals while also helping him let go of whatever baggage the hawk had been carrying at the time. The latter seemed to have worked, which was great! But the whole month of isolation he had from Jet afterwards really didn't help with the former objective.

It made him a little sad to think about it, but it was alright in the end. Jet was right there, right now. There was no use lamenting for the time they lost, only being thankful for the time they still had and would have.

Sonic wrapped everything up inside the picnic basket once he was done and did some quick stretches as well. Jet was impatiently looking at his phone and trying to figure out what to do with said basket. In the end, he simply shrugged to himself and put it behind the tree to be forgotten forever (or until he went to retrieve it the next day). That was the one part of the plan he didn't run by Shadow, huh?

That's right, Shadow… Honestly, Sonic had no clue why the two were going along so well. Maybe because they'd only ever talked while Jet wasn't his usual self, because his usual self would have made Shadow want to shoot him on the leg. Anyone else that tried to get into an overfamiliar rival mood with him that wasn't Sonic usually got that treatment.

"So! Where's the finish line, exactly?" Sonic asked, starting up his board and tossing it on the ground.

"You'll know when you get there. Shadow put some plaques along the way to indicate where to turn, but besides those we're going in a straight line for like 90% of the race. The challenge is keeping your air tank stocked the whole way there. Otherwise you'll have to stop, wait for manual refilling and stay behind by ten minutes or so."

"Sure, sounds easy enough by me! I have to say Jet, you came up with a really creative way for me to kick your butt. I appreciate you for that."

"I hope you're still not full, because you're gonna eat my dust." Jet retorted. "Want me to count us down?"

Sonic nodded and readied himself. Jet counted down to ten, and started running forward on five. Sonic could get a winning distance between them if he went all out in those five seconds of sprinting, but he wanted to keep things fair. He kept up with Jet's pace until he hit one. And once he did, they were off.

The moonlight illuminated both racers as they went on with their dispute. Their boards hummed with anticipation and both their faces had shifted into grins without any of them noticing. The cathartic thrill of going at such high speeds, the refreshing sensation of wind rushing through and past his quills – those feelings were irreplaceable. Every little thing counted when it came to racing, especially aboard extreme gear.

Both of their forms were perfect. Their stances maximized their aerodynamics, their pathfinding was on point and they performed the most air-efficient tricks once they hit anything that even slightly resembled a ramp. Sonic knew his board probably wasn't on par with the craft of the Babylonian descendants (no offense to Tails of course), but he had the raw will and attitude to make up for it.

Sonic was an adept at taking advantage of nature. He had enough experience going through rough and untamed environments to know everything he could use to his advantage. Every rock formation was a ramp, every fallen tree a grind rail. The first part of the race was on a lush yet bumpy green meadow that Sonic would have just _loved_ to run through with his own feet. A couple milliseconds ahead were all he could take, but take them proudly he did.

On the contrary, Jet's specialty was rushing past urban environments like they were made for him. Those milliseconds were taken right back as he hovered his way through the abandoned village that followed. He had been speeding through cities and catacombs his whole life. There wasn't a single manmade environment he couldn't dominate – past or present.

He was also not afraid of making his own way. A blast of wind from his fans was all he needed to turn a dead-end into part of the main path. Jet stayed true to the spirit of fair play and never used them to get himself a boost, though. He only used his fans to blow away obstacles that were absolutely unavoidable. He even saved Sonic from running into a poorly parked abandoned car along the way! How convenient!

It was in moments like these that Sonic could really appreciate Jet – _all_ of Jet. His arrogance hid a desire to be evenly matched my everyone and everything that challenged him. They would taunt each other back and forth, for sure, but Sonic could appreciate all the little things Jet did to put himself ahead while staying fair and true to his ideals. Yet, the context in which he had been inserted – or perhaps forced – into for most of his life didn't let many of those qualities shine through.

It was in moments like these that Sonic could say he really loved Jet – _all_ of Jet. Even if he himself didn't notice that attraction, it was there. And it was making him do stupid things like riding on extreme gear for five hours with only a sandwich's worth of energy.

Sonic's legs started aching at around three and a half hours in, and it only got worse as the time went on. He had run for much longer in the past for sure, but at least in those cases he could stop and stretch his legs. Or do… anything with his legs. He couldn't do so much as shift his position while riding on the extreme gear board without completely altering his trajectory.

Jet didn't look phased at all, _of course_ he didn't. Not even a twitch of discomfort. Either that, or he was better than Sonic at hiding it. The hawk's grin only widened once he glanced at the hedgehog's weakened state.

"Tired already? You can always declare me the winner and give your baby legs some rest."

Well now he wasn't going to do it. Sonic replied with an eye roll and continued to focus on the road ahead. It was almost completely flat. They really had to optimize and get creative with their use of tricks and grinding. If this was at the beginning of the marathon it would have been a cakewalk. But here? It was Sonic's worst nightmare.

But he persisted. Sonic persisted using the power or friendly rivalry, spite and repressed gay feelings. And it paid off, it really did! Or at least that's what he would say if he knew where the hell they were going. Or where they were for that matter. All he saw for miles were sharp rock formations leading into a river flowing in the opposite direction to them.

And then, he found it. A huge, crystal clear lake where the stream originated from. Near the shore two plastic lawn chairs rested – one green and one blue. Jackpot. That was it! They were now side by side, grins wide and eyes tired. All they had to do was somehow get off their boards and onto those chairs.

Except both of them were behind the wrong color of chair. And their legs were way more tired than their adrenaline-fueled bodies led them to believe they were. Sonic and Jet failed to get off their boards in different ways, but both of them ended up running over a chair each and getting flung into the cool water ahead.

Sonic didn't know who surfaced first, but they started throwing "I touched my chair first so I win!" as soon as they saw the other do it. The brawl persisted until Jet finally remembered they were on a time limit. The hawk grabbed onto Sonic's wrist and pretty much dragged him along to the shore. A quick check confirmed both of their phones were somehow still working, and that it was almost midnight. That sure **did** feel like five hours! Jet was alternating his gaze between it, the clear night sky and Sonic.

"It's almost here, it's almost here! Shut up and watch, it's gonna blow your mind."

Sonic had not said a word and still had no idea what was going on, but Jet had so much conviction in his voice that he complied without any retorts. He looked at the sky and waited. And as the clock hit midnight and the date officially changed, it finally happened.

The moon came out from behind the clouds! It was a full moon that day, and Sonic found really pretty the way that it reflected on the surface of the lake and illuminated everything around them so vividly. Even after getting dunked in cool water, the temperature was just perfect. All this accompanied by the low humming of various critters and the gentlest of breezes. It was the most beautiful thing Sonic had ever experienced, even if one of the simplest.

Jet, on the other hand, wasn't having any of it.

"Are you kidding me? Nothing? NOTHING?!" Jet yelled at the sky in frustration. "We've come all this way only for Little Planet NOT to show up? Not even a peek?!"

"Little… wait, **what**?"

Everything suddenly clicked in Sonic's mind. He knew that lake was very familiar to him somehow. He had been there before!

"You… you made us ride all the way to _Never Lake_?" Sonic wasn't upset. Not at all. He was just really surprised with their destination.

"Amy said she thought Little Planet would show up this month because her tarot said so or whatever. She said you'd like it." Jet curled up with his knees close to his chest, feathers still soaked and dripping. He was also shivering slightly.

"Amy was in on this too? Aw, man… That's… That's wonderful, Jet!"

Jet shifted his head to look at him so fast. His eyes were wide and his breathing completely halted for a moment.

"…What? No it's **not**, we put this much effort into it and it didn't work!" He whined.

"It doesn't matter if it worked, I still liked it. A lot."

Both of them remained quiet for a long time, simply enjoying the visuals. Sonic was the first to move, but only to move even closer to Jet. Their legs pressed together, bodies becoming warmer by the second. Finally, Sonic rested his head against Jet's shoulder. He wasn't shivering anymore, but he was incredibly tense.

He could feel just how tense Jet had gotten with the contact. He hadn't pushed him off or anything, so there must have been something bugging else him. But Sonic wouldn't force it out. He was too comfortable to do so. He liked to be around Jet, he liked to touch Jet. His feathers felt so nice against his short cobalt fur. With the amount of fatigue running through his body right now, he might as well fall asleep right there and then. And he was almost doing so, before Jet's voice brought him back to consciousness.

"Hey Sonic… I…"

Sonic waited. They had all the time in the world.

"…Do you want to maybe… hang out more often? Just… I don't know. Outside of racing. We'll still race, of course, just…"

Another pause.

"…I like spending time with you."

Sonic hummed to himself, taking a bit to reply even though he knew the answer since the moment Jet opened his beak. He wanted to make sure it felt right.

"Of course, Jet. I would love to. I appreciate that you put this much thought into something just to ask me if I wanted to hang out more often. You even got Shadow involved! And he agreed! That's honestly amazing."

Sonic let out a small sigh.

"You're amazing, Jet. I'll spend all the time in the world with you."


	12. Closer

"Maybe we should have taken the airship."

Jet had always taken for granted just how useful actual vehicles could be when it came to cargo. Carrying his phone, wallet and other trinkets in his pocket while riding his extreme gear? Feels fine! Carrying a bundle of ancient golden rope that could tie anyone up if he so much looked at them funny while holding it? Dangerous, but doable. A quasi-bottomless vase (not to be confused with the gourd that does the exact same thing) full of strong acid from the trap that almost got them? Now _that_ was starting to get a little too risky for his taste.

He would have made made Sonic carry the vase for him, but he was already busy carrying a heavy wooden box that didn't show any signs of rot besides being millennia old. So heavy that his extreme gear couldn't even get off the ground if he tried riding it while holding the box. Oh, and it had a sword on the inside. _Hopefully_ it had a sword on the inside, or else they'd have to do another wave of treasure hunting together to find it.

And so, they instead opted to return to Sonic's home through public transportation. Everyone was looking at them weird – not only because they looked like they had just ransacked a museum, but also because they were coated in dust and sand and dirt – but they were allowed inside regardless of how much they were carrying so it was the best option they had.

"Nonsense, this is fine! We don't need a whole airship just to carry these puny little things." Sonic scoffed.

"Puny? You were the one whining about your arms being exploding if you had to stand at the bus stop for a single minute longer."

"At least I'm not the one that triggered every single poison dart trap on our way to the treasure chamber."

Both of them growled at each other, then after a moment laughed together. It was true, they really hadn't done the best of jobs getting to that last artifact. But hey, they were alive and poison-free! What else could they ask for? A shower, probably.

They were soon disembarking at the Station Square station. It was empty enough for them to be able to quickly arrive at their hardest challenge yet: going doing the treacherous flight of stairs blocked the path to the Mystic Ruins. It looked like it could break at any moment – and it sure felt like it too! – but it thankfully stayed firm and allowed the two of them to rest easy on the lower ground after a terrifying few minutes of climbing down.

Tails was behind the house tending to their garden. He couldn't see them coming, but he sure could hear them bickering about something or other from miles away. He went ahead and got a toolbox before Sonic could even ask for one. Jet was the one to take it, since he had the most experience of the three in opening ancient treasures.

There was a lock they didn't have the key for, and it was too strong to be smashed, so they had to opt for plan B. Tails had a high-tech tool that could heat up the metal hinge that held the lid together. Once it was hot enough, it could be easily cut with a regular saw and allow the box to be opened. All of this had to be done very carefully as to not risk damaging whatever was inside. Once the lid was free, all that was left was taking it out of the way and retrieve the treasure.

Jet held the object up so the other two could see it. It looked just like a sword hilt in shape. It was made of a copper-colored metal, with strands of an unknown silvery material wrapped around where one would grip it if it were a real sword. The body was curved and the end swirled upwards in the same fashion umbrella handles did.

"Looks like a scimitar handle to me," Jet noted.

The place where the blade was supposed to come from had a hole that went almost as deep as the hilt itself. Shining his phone's flashlight into it, he could see what looked like metal prongs at the very end.

"Good news is, looks like the blade is detachable so it's probably out there somewhere. Bad news, we don't have it."

"Aw man, I really thought we were going to be done with this today! Bummer." Sonic pouted.

"Aren't there only like three places left in that list of yours?" Tails asked. Jet had to check the picture he took of it with his phone to jog his memory.

"Two, actually. Death Ruins and Little Planet." Jet corrected. "And since Little Planet didn't show up this month, that leaves us with a single option for now."

"Then it's settled! I think Shadow's been there before, we should ask him to join us when we go there."

"Wanna give him a call right now?" Jet shot him a small smirk. Sonic smiled back, but it was more of an apologetic smile than anything.

"Woah woah, easy there! I think I've done enough tomb raiding for one day, Flicky." He let out a chuckle. "And I do need a shower. _We_ need a shower."

Now that Sonic mentioned it, his muscles were feeling kind of sore from all they had gone through today. He had dealt with worse before, but it was probably wise to be at peak condition when visiting a place called _Death_ Ruins. Jet's days of being reckless were over. He didn't want to be a burden to Sonic and Shadow. Especially not for Sonic.

"Sure. I guess… This is goodbye for today, then?" Jet really didn't want it to be, but it wasn't fully up to him. "I have to find a place in my apartment for these. Tails, you can keep the box. Make a plane with it or whatever."

"My workshop is not your dumpster!" Tails pouted.

"You keep all of this stuff in your apartment? I mean, I don't know how big your apartment is but it can't be big enough for all the treasures you've ever gotten, right?" Sonic asked.

"Nah, most stuff is at my father's house. I only have a couple of trinkets and recent hauls with me. Recent as in, four years? Maybe a little less." It really wasn't a lot besides his fans and the artifacts they had acquired on the airship trip.

Before Sonic could say anything else, Jet's mind jumped to the first opportunity it had to let Jet's yearning leak into his actions.

"Wanna come see it? I do have a shower there."

"You bet! I mean," Sonic looked over at Tails, "can I?"

Tails raised an eyebrow in confusion, "... Why are you asking me? I'm not your dad. That does save a bit on our water bill, though, so I guess I should be encouraging you."

"If you take longer than ten minutes to shower I'm kicking you out."

"You act like you're not speaking to the fastest thing in the universe."

"You're only fast at running, everything else you do is slow."

"I could say the same about your gear riding, Flicky."

"Chaos, just go already! You're gonna be here all day!" Tails pretty much pushed them back towards Station Square station.

One public transport adventure later and their train was soon arriving at Central City. It wasn't that different from Station Square besides the lack of interesting places and the more extreme gear-accessible architecture. The buildings were a bit grayer and the sky was a bit darker, but nothing to complain too much about. Jet sort of liked the place, if not only because of the good memories he made there. All of which were racing related and made him feel kind of hollow when he thought about them too much.

It was a five-minute walk from the station to his apartment. He could reduce it to a single minute if he took out his board, but he was still carrying the fragile and volatile artifacts. Plus wanted to show Sonic all the places he went to on the daily. His favorite restaurant, the window of the lady that always set up her clotheslines for him to grind on, his… _former_ work building. Anything Sonic might be interested in use as an excuse to come visit him.

Not like he _needed_ an excuse at this point. Ever since that night at Never Lake they had been closer than ever. Jet really couldn't thank Shadow and Amy enough for helping him get that far with Sonic. All the pieces were set up, and he just had to make the final push.

Unfortunately, the final push was always the hardest. Jet had never had a romantic relationship before, he had no idea how long one had to be friends with their crush before it being socially acceptable to ask them out. And there was also the possibility of their relationship going straight to the garbage if Jet confessed and Sonic didn't feel the same way and things got uncomfortable between them because of that.

But that was not the time to think about that anxiety-inducing topics. That time would be during one his next therapy sessions – which were going great! He should have started years ago instead of being stubborn, he'll admit, but late is better than never.

They had soon arrived by his apartment complex. It wasn't fancy at all, despite the type of household being the number one extreme gear racer in the world would imply. His room was on the ground floor, right beside the stairs and a service closet. He had a simple metal door plate that said "HAWK" in capital letters, and a doormat with the same thing on it.

He let Sonic go in first so he could lock the door behind them. There wasn't much to his apartment; it consisted of a living room, two bedrooms (one of which was used as a mini treasure storage) and a bathroom. Despite not being nearly as big as Wave's and not coming close to Sonic's house in number of rooms, it still felt spacious and comfortable to Jet. Both of them had been leaving a trail of dirt wherever they went, and Jet was loathing the thought of having to clean it up.

"Comfy! Though I didn't think this would be your style." Sonic commented, looking through Jet's award collection in the living room. "You look like the type of guy that'd want to live in a mansion."

"I would be living in a mansion if G.U.N. hadn't taken all of the Rogues' money. Like a couple hundred gems and gold pieces makes a difference for them, they could just steal a whole country if it was convenient for them." Jet scoffed.

Sonic couldn't help but chuckle at that. "Now I know how you and Shadow got along so well. He also hates their guts… even though he does work for them."

"How does that work out?" Jet raised an eyebrow,

"Not a clue, he never told me. He's always like," Sonic tried to put on his best Shadow impression, "_you wouldn't understand, faker. You're a vigilante at heart. People like me have to infiltrate in the system to be able to beat it._"

"People like him? I thought you said he had the power to teleport an incoming comet back to space. He sounds like the perfect kind of guy to destroy the imperialistic war machine without becoming a part of it."

"I know, right! I don't know what's going on inside Shadow's head half the time, but I trust him. He knows what he's doing most of the time, and when he doesn't Rouge is there to knock some sense into him. Sometimes with _my_ help."

It was only when Sonic started actually touching his racing trophies that Jet decided to step in. He cleared his throat to get the hedgehog's attention.

"Take your hands off my stuff, hedgehog. You're leaving dirt everywhere."

Sonic immediately put the object back on the shelf, a little bit of a guilty smile poking through his cool guy expression.

"Don't sit down on the couch just yet either. I'm gonna shower first so I can clean your mess when it's your turn. Try not to move around too much."

"Now you're asking too much of me, Flicky. I'm a free spirit." Sonic rolled his eyes with a smirk, placing his hands behind his head. "You got lucky convincing me to get on a train two times in a row. I'd have just run ahead of you if it wasn't for that cute face of yours."

"Whatever you say, weirdo." Jet turned around and walked towards the bathroom, hoping Sonic couldn't notice his brain imploding after getting called cute.

He took a quick shower and put on some gloves and shoes before stepping back into the living room. Sonic was standing by the corner, tapping his food impatiently as he watched something on Jet's TV. He glanced over at the sound of Jet's footsteps and immediately cracked a small smile.

"Nice hair."

Ah, that's right. Jet had forgotten to tie his feathers back up after showering. They clumped together like Sonic's quills, the dark green tips gently falling down towards his back almost touching it. It was a lot like his fourteen-year-old-self's look, except with much more "hair" than back then. Mostly because there wasn't a hairdresser in the entirety of Central City that worked with feathers. He hadn't gotten a decent cut since his visit to Wave on Christmas. He'd probably need another one soon.

"Your turn. You can go to my room afterwards and pick whatever."

"Why don't you pick something for me, huh? So I don't get your favorite clothes by mistake."

"I'm not your butler!" Despite that, Jet did retreat into his room to pick an outfit for Sonic.

He was initially just going to leave Sonic some regular red shoes and white gloves, but the part of his brain that produced his gay thoughts demanded him to develop the outfit further. Adding a jacket should be enough, right? Yes, the gray and red sports jacket with sponsors on the back. He wasn't going to be using that ever again most likely, so it wouldn't hurt to let Sonic have it. Maybe indefinitely.

"Do you want me to make you a sandwich and some tea as well?" Jet rolled his eyes, walking into the living room once again.

"Actually I wo—"

"GO!"

Sonic zipped past him and into the bathroom. Ugh.

Jet sort of regret having told Sonic to hurry up with his shower. He wanted to be able to clean everything before he came out of the bathroom, as well as get them some snacks (despite the earlier exchange). Oh well, he'd have to postpone the latter. It didn't take too long for him to clean the floor and polish all of the memorabilia Sonic had touched with his dirty gloves. He also took a step into the treasure room to store the latest haul. That took about five minutes in total. He wasn't too confident on his ability to make something edible as quickly, so he just resumed watching whatever Sonic had put on the TV.

Of course, Sonic came out of the shower nine minutes and fifty-nine seconds after he had come in, just to tease Jet. He could almost imagine him standing right next to the door while staring at his phone just so he could do that. Jet knew about it because he was also staring at his phone. Because he had a feeling Sonic just might try to pull off something like that. What a show off.

Sonic went straight into Jet's room. He couldn't hear any complaints or comments from the living room, so he assumed he did a good job picking an outfit. He started getting worried when he didn't hear anything for Sonic for five more minutes. He decided to walk to his room and knock on the door – and open it before he could get answer back.

Sonic was going through his stuff. Of course.

"What are you doing?" Jet leaned against the doorway, watching Sonic closely.

"Just checking stuff out. I don't really know what else you do besides racing." Sonic was rummaging through his shelves. There wasn't much to look at besides a few more awards, a couple of books and an old handheld game console.

"I literally don't do anything else that's not related to racing." Jet rolled his eyes. That didn't feel so bad to say anymore. "You could have just asked me anyways."

"I didn't because I knew you'd reply with something like that. Even if you think you don't do anything else, there has to be something."

Sonic now moved to inspect his closet. Jet wasn't particularly fond of letting the hedgehog snoop through his things like that, but at least he wasn't dirty anymore. Sonic rummaged through the dozens of jackets for a couple seconds until he pulled out a cardboard box from the end of the closet. Sonic started taking everything out and putting it on the bed.

"Is this… something I shouldn't be seeing?"

Dozens of makeup items were produced from the box – mostly eyeliners and nail polish. The lack of lipstick and similar products was noticeable and understandable. Sonic finally stopped digging into the box when he came across a fashion magazine with a very familiar hawk on the cover. They had long dark green feathers that covered up one of their eyes, which were surrounded by a patch of red feathers (though a bit larger than the ones Jet had). They were wearing baggy clothes, a beanie and standing on roller skates. The title of the magazine read "Urban Hawk".

"…Jet, I am so sorry if I—"

"Oh, there it is! I was wondering where I put this. Hang on…" Jet walked over to the bed and grabbed the magazine. He tore the cover page off and taped it to the wall with some duct tape he had in the same box. "There we go. My mom has been asking me to frame this cover of her somewhere for ages. This should be good enough for now."

"…Mom? Oh! Okay, thanks Chaos! For a moment I thought I had just… Never mind. Your mom looks really cool!" Sonic let out a sigh of relief, not finishing his sentence. Jet didn't know what he meant so he just let the subject go.

"I was meaning to take these out anyways, I'm gonna have to look fancy for a wedding in a couple of weeks." Jet grimaced a little.

Sonic was quick to notice and comment about it. "You don't look too excited for it. Something wrong?"

"It's Storm's wedding, so I sorta _have_ to go, y'know?" Jet explained, sorting the makeup onto whatever empty space he could find on his shelves. "But my dad's gonna be there probably. And… you know how that is."

"Don't need to remind me." Sonic grimaced as well. "Can't you just ask Storm to like… not invite him?"

Jet shook his head. "Not really. Family is kind of a big deal in our culture, even if it's a shitty family. I'll just have to suck it up and try to avoid him the whole night. At least until I have to give my best man speech or whatever. I'm procrastinating on that currently."

"Of course you are. Wave must be bugging you every day about it though, huh?"

"Eh, I'll come up with something on the spot. It can't be that hard to say nice words about someone, right?" Oh how things have changed. "Now I just need to find someone to be my plus one and—"

"I'll go."

Both of them paused and stared at each other until Sonic spoke up again with a hint of red on his muzzle.

"I mean, if you don't have anyone else to invite of course!"

"Sonic, all of my other friends are invited by default." Jet shrugged. "You can come, that's fine by me. It's gonna be way less boring with you there anyways."

Sonic looked like he was at a loss for words for a brief moment. "Aww, you flatter me Flicky."

"Now shut up and come look at my stuff. The stuff you came here to look at."

Jet put the box back in his closet and they box walked to the other room. It was about the same size as his bedroom, but it looked way more spacious since it was only furnished by displays that clung to the wall and let them have a lot more walking room. Most of the cases were empty, with some notable exceptions being his fans and the rest of the artifacts they had gathered. Aside from that, the one other noteworthy thing was the small safe in the corner of the room.

"That's where I keep the gems and other valuable stuff. They used to be on the displays as well but they started going missing after Wave started bringing Rouge along with her on her visits."

Sonic couldn't help but chuckle at that. "Yep, that's Rouge alright."

"Yeah." Jet scratched the back of his head. "That's… it I guess. Not really anything interesting in my apartment. Tails is… probably waiting for you right now, it's getting late."

"Oh no, he's staying at Charmy's today to work on a school project or something." Sonic shrugged. "We can hang out for a little longer if you want."

"Really?" Jet scolded himself for sounding so desperate for Sonic to stay. "I mean, sure. Your choice. Oh! I borrowed some video games from Cream. We could take a look at those."

"Sounds fine by me! Did you get The Fighters? I always lose to Cream whenever we play that one, it's gonna feel nice to finally beat someone in that game." Sonic smirked. Jet rolled his eyes and started heading back to the living room.

"You wish, hedgehog."

They were quick to set up the console together and play some matches together. They were on the same skill level (unsurprisingly) and they ended in a tie before the pizza they had ordered had arrived. All of this felt… strangely familiar to Jet. Like that first night back on Station Square. They even got the same flavor pizza as well! The only things missing were Tails and a nasty fight. Jet could gladly go without both of those things (sorry Tails).

And what better way to end it than with the same movie? Hopefully they'd get to watch it in a good mood this time.

It wasn't even cold, but Jet still went to retrieve a blanket for the two of them to sit under. Pacific Rim was once again put on the big screen and this time both of them could watch it without any ill feelings between them. They even went for the sequel afterwards – and they had a good time laughing at just how bad it was. In the end they put it back on cable for them to watch whatever came on.

They've come so far, huh? Jet was completely calm despite being this physically close to Sonic. Very warm and flustered, but way more relaxed than one would expect from Jet. He could probably go straight to sleep if he closed his eyes and let his brain wander. But he wanted to stay awake for just a bit longer.

Being this close to Sonic… was something he always knew he wanted but never knew how it was going to turn out. And he was loving every second of it.

Sonic shifted in his seat and his hand accidentally landed on Jet's. He started to pull it away but the hawk gently grabbed it with his. Both of them turned to face each other, hearts racing and cheeks flushed. The distance between got shorter and shorter as both leaned forward into each other, and…

"Ow!"

Sonic pulled back, rubbing a finger over his lip to check for any bruises. Jet did so as well, realizing what had just happened and what _could_ have happened. Dammit!

"For a moment I forgot… beak!" Sonic burst into laughter. Jet followed soon after, glad the mood wasn't any more awkward between them besides that failed kiss attempt.

"Let's just forget this happened." Jet wiped tears from his eyes, glancing over at Sonic.

"Yeah, that's fine for me. Geez, I should have known better. Heat of the moment, am I right?"

"Yeah, right. I knew you were gonna end up stabbing yourself with my beak, I just wanted to see how it went."

"Sure you did, Flicky. Sure you did."


	13. Unawakening Float

Both past and present could coexist in harmony in Durmak, a small town located near the heart of Shamar. Youth and elderly treaded the same paths to reach establishments from two different time periods – a century-old bar that still displayed some of its menus in modern Babylonian script and a recently built nightclub that shone its lights into the heaven until the nights of festivities came to an end. Both were different in style and aesthetic, but similar in the fact that they were both forms of entertainment that had evolved along with its patrons – and then ceased changing due to a refusal to break old habits.

If that was really a bad thing, no one was able to tell for sure. Change is inevitable – and sometimes much needed – but so is melancholy. Whether it was from an old timer that returned to their home only to find all their favorite hangout spots gone, or a child who wonders what sort of history unfolded from the pile of rubble left behind by an ancient household that collapsed because of its own age. Buildings can be repaired and replaced, and memories can be registered and cherished, but the feeling of being able to be there when something is at its peak can't ever be replicated.

Time eventually came for everyone and everything, it's just how things go. The inner workings of the universe are mysterious, yet predictable enough to leave some on their toes at all time. One couldn't help but wonder if their legacy would be the next to fall into oblivion. What would be left of their home by the time their successors came into the world? Would they make the same mistakes? Enjoy the same past times? Will you even still be there to experience life with them?

It is just impossible to tell. Everything always moves so fast and there is barely any time to reflect on the decisions that shaped the present the way it was – and would continue to shape the future. Those who stop to look at the sands of time get lost and eventually sink in it. Like the ever-shifting dunes, no two events progressed the exact same way even if raised from the same building blocks. And eventually, a strong enough force would come and sweep them clean. One grain at a time, one memory at a time.

"Stop the fucking car Wave, I have to do my makeup!"

But some things never change. For better or for worse.

"I offered to help you with it and you said you could do it on our way there!" Wave let out a groan of frustration. She was definitely not in her element. She hadn't been inside an actual car in forever, much less driven one. They were noisy, hard to maneuver and extremely pollutant – the complete opposite of the vehicles she worked with every day.

"You always end up stabbing me in the eye with the eyeliner!" Jet was trying and failing to apply makeup on himself by glancing at his reflection every time they drove near a street lamp. Of course Jet, in all of his wisdom, would procrastinate on getting ready until the very last minute when it became an inconvenience to those around him. Some things never change.

"No, you're the one who _thinks_ I'm doing it wrong then moves and gets stabbed in the eye!" Wave took a sharp turn, causing Jet to almost slam his face against the window. He put his makeup away after that and finally put on his seatbelt. "Just do it in the parking lot. You know these things never have a proper schedule."

The number of people on the streets around them dwindled as they steered away towards the edge of town. Small houses and a handful of apartments replaced the bars and clubs, most with light pouring out of their windows. Those also lessened in number until the road laid bare ahead of them. After a couple minutes of driving with nothing in sight except trees, sand and the occasional wild animal or two, they could finally spot their destination in the distance.

The Hanging Gardens were a multipurpose building that was frequently used to host large events and gatherings. It rested atop a not-so-impressive cliff and featured large areas of greenery and natural beauty completely suspended in the air due to some pretty clever architecture. The festivities happened on the first floor, the second was filled with suites and other accommodations for those who needed a break or preferred a quieter time.

Both Jet and Wave knew the layout of the place with the back of their hands, as they had been there many times in the past. It was the go-to place whenever one of their families was to host a ceremony, no matter the magnitude. Storm's family was friends with the owner, so that meant they didn't need to pay the full hosting fee as long as nothing got damaged and they helped clean afterwards.

The parking lot was already filled to the brim as expected. There was one single free spot – the one that had been reserved for them. Jet wondered if Sonic and Rouge were already among the sea of cars or if they were trying to find some other place to park. Wave could see the worry on his face through the driving mirror and told him not to worry about it. It didn't work, but it was a nice gesture at least.

"Turn on the driving lamp and get out of the way." Jet whined, grabbing his things and moving to the driver's seat as soon as they stopped. He'd use the driving mirror to help him put the finishing touches on his makeup.

Looking good! Now they'd just have to wait for their partners.

Wave was wearing a simple bronze-colored dress and a pair of boots – as heels really weren't her thing no matter how fancy the occasion was. It was strange to see her without her usual bandana and goggles combo, although the absence of the latter was made up for by yellow-tinted reading glasses. Her purse was big enough to carry a regular-sized wrench, and Jet was pretty sure there _was_ one in there somewhere.

It wasn't a super formal event, so Jet could get away with wearing his dark green tuxedo with golden accents and matching suit pants instead of a black outfit. He skipped the bow tie (he thought they looked stupid) and was instead wearing one of Wave's borrowed orb necklaces around his neck. He had an unremarkable white shirt underneath as well as brown dress shoes. He gave into Wave's requests for him to not bring his fans so all that he was carrying with him were his keys and phone.

Jet stepped out of the car and Wave quickly locked it before he could consider going in again. He leaned against it and stared at his phone. They had gotten there a couple minutes earlier than expected, and knowing Sonic he'd probably make his grand arrival at the very last second, so there was quite a bit of time to kill.

"Jet, calm down."

The hawk hadn't realized he was tapping his foot against the ground at mach speed while emitting a high-pitched growl. That always happened when he was stressed.

"I'm calm! I'm completely calm." He exclaimed before closed his beak.

Wave rolled her eyes and glanced at her phone as well. She was trying not to step on his boundaries too much, but that was pretty much impossible with him agitated like that. "I'm going to regret asking, but you did finish your best man speech, right?"

That only made his foot tap faster. "I can come up with something on the spot. Not like it's hard."

"You're a child, you know that? Just hope that you don't upset Storm or his wife. It's their special day after all, I would be pretty pissed if the guy I _especially_ picked for the occasion was an incompetent little brat."

Jet didn't reply to that. Wave looked at him with a bit of concern on her face. Jet kept his gaze away from her. Knowing Wave, she was already halfway through reading him like a book.

"…This is about your father, isn't it?"

"So what if it is, Wave?" Jet was now staring at her. "So what if it is?"

Wave's expression softened. "Look, just… we're all here for you, alright? If you think he's coming for you then walk into the crowd, he can't say or do anything to you when there's other people around."

"I know that. I'm not a baby anymore."

"I'm not calling you a baby, I'm just reminding you that this doesn't have to be an awful time. Don't let that asshole keep ruining your life like this!"

"I'M TRYING WAVE!" He took a deep breath, breaking eye contact. "…I'm trying, Wave. I thought I'd never have to see him again after Sonic blocked his number on my phone. I was feeling great! But then I started thinking, what if he shows up at my apartment? What if I find him somewhere on the street? Of course I won't, he never leaves this dump of a town… but what if?"

Jet sighed, slumping against the side of the car. "I thought I got over it, I really did. Hell, I didn't even realize I was going to have to see him again when you messaged me about the wedding! It just… dawned on me some time later and there I go back to square zero. Can you believe it? Can you believe that you can get so far then have everything ruined by something stupid like this?"

Wave couldn't find the right words to reply to him. Instead, she simply opened her arms as an invitation for a hug. Jet hesitated for a moment before giving in, wrapping her arms around her and closing his eyes. That always helped him calm down. He had to hold back his tears this time though, he couldn't let Sonic see him like that.

Speaking of Sonic! They started hearing a strange noise sometime after they had broken the hug, but they saw no vehicles coming through the entrance gates. Instead, they found themselves looking up towards a G.U.N. helicopter that almost blended in with the night sky. They didn't have to worry too much about the implications of it being there as Rouge soon jumped out with Sonic riding on her back. They were able to glide safely to the ground near the birds while the helicopter went away.

Rouge was dazzling as always. A high cut sparkling purple dress and some heels were all she needed to steal glances away from everyone she walked past. But Jet's eyes were focused on the hedgehog that accompanied her. He wore a fairly standard dark blue tuxedo and black dress shoes, but something about seeing Sonic in such an elaborate outfit was making him go crazy. Though instead of a shirt underneath, he was wearing a light blue t-shirt with a big ring printed on the chest area. Oh, and he also had a little pin of himself wagging his finger on his suit. _Of course_.

"Fashionably late, as all guests should be." Rouge struck a pose, then started chuckling as she shifted to a more casual stance. "Sorry babe, I forgot I hadn't sorted out the paperwork from last time I took the helicopter without asking. You two are looking fancy if I do say so."

"You know these aren't really my thing. I just got an old dress from my mom and ditched the heels. You look much better in those than I do." Wave shrugged.

"Still looking pretty good!" Sonic performed a little polite bow. "Can't say I've ever worn one of these before, that's for sure. I didn't even have a proper shirt! I'm sure nobody's gonna mind though, right Jet?"

…

Wave gently smacked him on the back of the head. "Jet, say something. You're almost drooling."

That snapped him out of his trance. There he went, looking stupid in front of Sonic yet again. Like that was a rare occurrence by now.

"You're wearing your own merch. To a formal wedding." Jet rolled his eyes, stuffing his hands inside his pockets. "I don't think I even need to comment on that."

Sonic frowned, before a metaphorical light bulb lit over his head. He pulled out his pin and put it on Jet's suit instead. The hawk looked annoyed but didn't retaliate against it in any way, so he took the opportunity snatched and wear Jet's necklace in return.

"There you go! Now it doesn't look so weird." Sonic grinned.

Jet was glad he couldn't see that his face was pretty much on fire under his feathers. "Now they're gonna think I'm dating you or something like that."

Sonic replied with only a hum. One that made Jet more flustered than anything Sonic could ever have expressed with words.

Both Jet and Wave took out their gifts for Storm from the car and soon the four of them were heading towards the building. Wave and Rouge held hands as soon as they started walking. Sonic offered his hand to Jet as a joke and was pleasantly surprised when he actually took it. Though it was instantly released the moment they stepped into view of the people inside.

They had outdone themselves with the decoration this time. Despite having been there many times in the past, the place was almost unrecognizable at a fist glance to Jet and Wave. Bright and colorful tapestries adorned walls and pillars, leading into one another by strings of flowers. Hundreds of mobians sat down on large rectangular tables, each with a plate full of snacks and drinks of their choice. The dance floor and the stage on which the actual ceremony would happen were ready to go whenever the time came. The DJ played a mixture of traditional and contemporary music, although it was barely audible under everyone's voices.

Most of the people present were birds, and it was possible to discern which family group they belonged to by the color of their feathers. Sonic noted there wasn't a lot of green in the crowd, but Jet didn't think much of it when he brought it up to him.

"They're there, trust me. There's almost as many of us as people from Wave's family," He explained, "they're just scattered around instead of grouping up. Want to avoid a certain someone."

Sounded about right, if Sonic had the right bastard in mind.

The group made a beeline for the presents area first. Boxes upon boxes were nearly stacked in a room of their own, with one of Storm's relatives serving as a bodyguard. Jet knew the guy, he wasn't much of a fighter – but his sheer size as an above average height mobian albatross was enough to deter anyone coming his way with malicious intentions. They were soon given a clear and deposited their gifts: a rice cooker and an electric mixer. Sonic and Rouge didn't bring anything, but that wasn't a big deal.

Next was meeting the lucky couple of the night. Despite his massive stature, none of them could see Storm amidst the crowd. His and his wife's table was up front near the stage, so their best bet was waiting around that area until they returned.

They might as well go ahead and greet some of the hundreds of people present – they didn't want to come off as impolite! The pairs split off after walking by a table with the oldest birds Sonic had ever seen. Wave and Rouge headed towards the mass of purple feathers and condescending smiles to the right, while Jet and Sonic started scavenging for the green individuals among the rainbow of acquaintances.

_No dad in sight. _

Sonic quickly found himself becoming the star of whatever conversation Jet introduced him into. At every table they went there was at least one person who knew who he was, and all of them had a positive image of him. Some knew about his feats of good against the wicked Doctor Eggman. Others had been informed that he helped the Rogues uncover the secrets behind Babylon Garden. A few of them asked how Jet found himself such a handsome and polite boyfriend, which made him slowly get more and more flustered as they hopped from table to table.

"Can we go eat now? I want to eat now." Jet whined. He reached out and gave Sonic's hand a gentle squeeze, but the hedgehog shook his head.

"Come on, we only have like five tables to go before we reach the buffet!" Sonic grinned, shaking the hand of a small albatross child.

"Easy for you to say, everyone loves you no matter where you go."

"Awww, don't be jealous Flicky. Everyone here seems happy to see you too!"

_Everyone except one. Wherever he was. _

"Look, if you can make it to the last table without running away I'm going to personally feed you some of those stuffed peppers. How does that sound?" Sonic had a smirk on his face. He knew he was making an offer he couldn't refuse.

That didn't mean Jet was going to admit he wanted it, of course. "I'm only accepting this because I'm not a loser."

Those felt like the five longest greetings Jet ever had in his whole life. In the end they had managed to make it to the buffet unscathed – but were yanked away by Rouge materializing out of nowhere. She didn't care much for Jet's whining and led them to the stage where Wave, Storm and his to-be wife were chatting.

"Aren't the groom and bride like, not supposed to see each other until after the main ceremony?" Sonic whispered towards Jet.

"Nah, we don't really do that here." He replied.

Cloud was a mobian condor that stood a couple inches taller than Storm – which was pretty impressive! Her plumage was mostly black and fluffy, with white accents around her neck, arms and what little they could see of her legs under the puffy white wedding dress. Despite having the same amount of (if not more) muscle mass than her future husband, her features were delicate and she stood beside him with grace. Storm himself was wearing a tuxedo that looked like it was a couple sizes too small for him. The sleeves were ripped off, and when questioned about it he'd answer with "people keep asking me to compare biceps with Cloud for pictures so I just took them off".

"Jet!" Storm yelled loud enough to alert the whole venue. He wrapped his arms around the hawk and squeezed tight. "You're here! I'm so glad you could come."

"Wouldn't… miss it for anything…bud…" Jet wheezed, finding it hard to breathe. "Brought…Sonic…"

That (thankfully) made the albatross release Jet from his gasp. Sonic, seeing the fate that awaited him, offered a polite handshake instead. It was ignored and Storm instead grabbed him and lifted him high into the air.

"Long time no see! Wave told me you've been hanging out with Jet lately, huh? Anyone that makes Jet happy is more than welcome here!"

Sonic could breathe, but he didn't know if his ribs would come out intact from the embrace. "Thanks so much! I'm glad you're enjoying your special day, big guy. How's it been for you? We have a bit of catching up to do, huh? O-on the ground, preferably…"

Meanwhile, Wave ceased her conversation with Cloud so Jet could introduce himself. That was his first time seeing her, she looked… well, perfect for Storm! And for once he wasn't thinking that as a mean joke or anything of the sorts, they just looked like they fit well together.

"I've heard so much about you, Jet. Storm is always talking about how you three went on amazing adventures together and how awesome you are." She offered him a small smile.

Jet's ego was in an all-time high after that. "Heh, what can I say? The tales are all true, and I'm even more amazing in real life. Storm helped too of course, he's the best partner I could have ever asked for."

Wave looked a tiny bit offended by that.

"And now he's… well, the best partner _you_ could have ever asked for. But like, in a romantic way. You know what I mean."

Cloud chuckled at that. After a couple more moments of idle chatting, Storm pulled him aside and towards the buffet. Jet thought he'd finally get the chance to dig in but Storm blocked the way by leaning his back against it. Jet let out an annoyed grunt and looked up at the albatross, only to be met with an expression full of… worry?

"What's up, big guy? Something on your mind?" Jet crossed his arms over his chest.

"I dunno, Jet. This is all so… fancy, you know? Me and Cloud wanted to do something simple for our wedding, but our families wanted something big and shiny and… I don't know about this." Storm let out a big sigh.

"I mean, are you having fun?"

"Well, yeah, but… I don't know if _she_ is."

Jet glanced back at Cloud and the others. Her and the rest of the girls were laughing at Sonic doing silly poses while telling a story. That managed to put a smile on his face – or as much of one as he could manage with a beak.

"I'm sure she's having the time of her life right now, Storm." Jet gently pat his forearm. "Besides, it's not like this is _super_ official. Technically you already got married back when you signed the papers, this is just for fun. If you don't like how this party turns out then you can just throw another one – on your _own_ terms."

"You're right! You're definitely invited to my next party, Jet. Thanks for giving me a hand." Storm pat his back with almost-lethal force. "Sonic's invited too, of course. Are you two… y_ou know_?"

"Don't be stupid!" Jet growled out. He waited until all the eavesdropping relatives turned their attentions away before whispering in Storm's ear, "_I wish_."

"Don't worry Jet, I'm sure everything's gonna work out between you two." Storm gave him a thumbs up.

"Great! Can we eat now? I wanna eat now."

"Of course, get as much food as your little body can handle! But uh… one more thing?"

"Yes?" Jet was starting to lose his composure.

Storm rubbed the back of his head. "Your dad, um… is he coming?"

_Of course_. He was almost forgetting that dickhead was supposed to show up and ruin his good time. "I **hope** not."

"You know you can count on us if he gets too out of hand, right? Just say the word and I'll have him kicked out and thrown off the roof."

Despite how serious Storm sounded, that still managed to get a laugh out of Jet. "Can you imagine? I bet his bones are like, turning to dust at this age. I bet you'd be able to hear him shattering from the top of the roof!"

Storm kept staring at him with concern. Jet dropped his act and let out a sigh.

"I know. I'll tell you if I need help dealing with the old man. But really, don't worry about that. It's your special day, you should be enjoying yourself. You're only gonna have to worry about me when I'm about to give the greatest best man speech you've ever heard."

Storm's face lit up and he just had to give Jet another spine-crushing hug. This one didn't last as long, at least.

"You got it Jet! Now let's go, I have to tell your idea to my wife."

They smiled and walked back onto the stage. Jet went straight to Sonic, who was talking to some toddlers. They both had green feathers but Jet had no idea who they were, if they were even his relatives. One of them was holding a big book that looked almost as heavy as himself.

"Food." Jet grabbed Sonic by the arm and tried to drag him towards the buffet, but he resisted.

"Hey calm down Flicky! I'm a little busy right now, I promised these two I was going to play with them for a bit. Isn't that right?" Sonic freed himself from Jet's grasp and stood beside the two hawks, looking the slightest bit embarrassed.

"You what."

"Yeah! We're playing Arabian Nights and he's gonna be the legendary hedgehog!" One of them chirped excitedly.

Jet raised an eyebrow. "There's no hedgehog in Arabian Nights. I read it."

"Of course there is, stupid! Right at the end!" The other shoved the huge book towards Jet, who forcefully snatched it and opened it on the last page. Sure enough, the _legendary hedgehog_ was there, wielding the power of the secret rings. He was even blue and had his quills styled like Sonic's! The similarities were uncanny, but it matched the style and had some of the same translation errors as the rest of the book, so it was believable. For everyone else, at least.

Sonic had never seen a man more confused than Jet was at that very moment.

"That's not how it goes… That's not how it goes!" Jet threw the book back at its owner, almost crushing the kid. "It's… it's supposed to end with like a warning! It ends with like… _and the maleficent Erazor Djinn will erase all the stories from the sands of time, but only we stop sharing them with the future generations_. There's no… hedgehog!"

Both kids stuck their tongues out and dragged Sonic off by his arms. All the hedgehog could do was give Jet and apologetic smile before turning away and facing his fate for the next thirty to sixty minutes. Jet simply stared at the spot where they used to be in utter disbelief before some distant relative pulled him aside to tease him about getting nicknamed Flicky by Sonic. Looks like he wasn't going to hear the end of that so soon, _great_.

By the time their chat was over, Jet had lost contact with all of his friends. Wave and Rouge were nowhere to be seen, while Storm and Cloud were talking to some of the staff about whatever. It had just dawned on him that he was completely alone in the middle of the party, looking as unoccupied and lonely as ever. Jet immediately started heading towards a bathroom or anywhere he could isolate himself without anybody questioning it.

He was closer to the stairs than any of the seven bathrooms in that floor. That was a blessing in disguise though – he could get a room upstairs and message his friends to come escort him back whenever they were free. If someone asked, he could tell them he was going to the roof like he used to as a kid. It was the perfect plan!

It would have been, if a hand didn't reach out and grabbed his shoulder as soon as he set foot on the first step.

"I didn't take you for the type to own Sonic merch, dear."


	14. Suddenly

"It was a gift. Sort of."

Jet's mother dressed however she wanted regardless of clothing guidelines, and this wedding was no exception. Jeans, hoodie and a flat cap replaced any semblance of formal attire. The fanciest thing she had on were a pair of golden bracelets clamping the ends of her white gloves. She had her back against the stairway's railing opposite to Jet – who was in the same pose.

"I could get you one of those. You know he's here, right?" Jet shrugged, looking down at his Sonic pin. He was surprised (and a little offended) nobody had commented on it. He thought it was cute and secretly hoped Sonic would let him keep it.

"Everyone's talking about him, yeah. You know I'm not much of a superhero fan myself. I've seen some neat replicas of his red sneakers online, though. Feel free to mail me one of those for Mother's Day."

"Sure, I can do that."

Both of them stood there in silence, glancing back at each other whenever a new small talk subject arose. Faiza wasn't a bad parent, she just wasn't there for him a lot. She'd go out of town for weeks at a time to do her own things, mostly related to her modelling career. But she mostly wanted to be as far from Jet's father as possible – which didn't justify her almost complete absence, but it was understandable in hindsight. She became much more active in Jet's life when he turned eighteen, when she finally went through with her long awaited divorce.

She couldn't resume parenting him, nor could she give him back the normal childhood he deserved, but she could continue to support him. She was the one who recommended him his current therapist, and that was working out great! The help was much appreciated, even if Jet had been quite stubborn in accepting it before his trip to Angel Island.

"The talon polish you sent me is nice. I'm wearing the deep red one under my gloves." Jet commented.

"Hey, for real? I'm glad you like it! I guess we're matching then," Faiza showed him her talons with a smile. "I was considering going for blue today, but I had a feeling you'd be using red."

"I could definitely go for blue right now, if I can get my hands on him." Jet only processed what had come out of his mouth after a few moments. "I mean, _it_."

"You don't have to hide it, dear. It's all over your face." She let out a chuckle. "He's gonna be busy for a little while, yeah? He's practically a superstar in here. You know how it went when Wave first brought Rouge over for the family gathering."

"I don't know how it went, ol' dickbag was busy dragging me around and scolding me for not doing the things he asked me to." Jet rolled his eyes.

"Oh, right. He's supposed to be here today, right? Gaia, I don't know why he insists on coming. Not a single person here likes him, everyone just pretends they do to be polite."

"If you ask me, he's probably already in here somewhere. Lurking in the shadows and waiting for the perfect moment where nobody can come up with an excuse not to talk to him fast enough."

"Sounds like him alright."

Both of them chuckled quietly. Their hate for the man was something they could bond over, at least. They chatted about nothing in particular for a little while longer until they decided to part ways for the time being. Faiza still had a ton of people to greet, and Jet wanted to find where all of his friends had gone to. Sonic in particular, but he wasn't opposed to hanging out by someone else while the hedgehog was getting pushed around by tiny hawks (other than himself).

Going up the stairs, it wasn't long before he heard the sound of music. Weirdly familiar music. Wave's weird taste in music that sounded more like noise than actual music, to be precise.

Jet picked up his pace and power-walked through the long hallway of suites until he reached a small lounging area. Sure enough, Wave and Rouge had set up a TV and were doing a rematch of their karaoke night dispute. They had gathered a small crowd around them too! Wave's relatives were mostly cheering for her, while everyone else cheered for Rouge.

How one could _win_ at karaoke wasn't something Jet knew, but then again his voice sounded too much like bird for him to even attempt it.

He waited patiently until Wave passed her mic to one of her relatives and retreated into the corner to check her phone. Jet instinctively checked his own and saw a message from her asking if he was alone. He responded to that by simply walking into her field of view.

"There you are. I felt a little bad leaving you there on your own but my cousins wouldn't let me go until I showed them my singing. You know how it is." Wave stuffed her phone back in her purse.

"Eh, 's fine. Found mom." Jet shrugged.

"Oh, she came? I haven't seen her yet, but I bet she's wearing the—"

"The flat cap, yeah. She probably wants to thank you for giving it to her."

Wave snickered. "I'm glad she likes it! I'm not the biggest fan of fashion but I just had a feeling that'd go well with her usual look, y'know?"

"That's how I buy most of her birthday and Mother's Day gifts, yeah. Have you seen Sonic?"

"Sonic… Oh, yeah! He told me to tell you he was waiting for you at the farthest balcony. The one with the ivy."

Waiting for him? Hmm… something about the wording of that made Jet feel nervous in a good way. It was probably nothing special, just his way of saying he was finally free from the grasp of the mighty toddlers that were making him roleplaying as an Arabian Nights character (that Jet still wasn't convinced was real). Why was he overthinking this all of a sudden?

"I don't wanna put words in his mouth, but the way he said it was pretty romantic." Wave said nonchalantly, glancing over at Rouge who was singing with one of her relatives. "I'd get ready if I were you."

"Very funny, Wave. I expected that from everyone here except you."

"I'm being serious. I'm just saying that so you can mentally prepare for if he makes any _moves_."

Ah, that was a good point. Not even in his gayest thoughts Jet imagined Sonic would be the one to confess to him. I mean sure, they had almost kissed and he was pretty sure they were _both_ leaning into it, but…

Actually, Wave was right. It was kind of possible. Jet was both excited and terrified about the (somewhat slim, in his opinion) chances of something like that happening.

"…I don't wanna make a scene. It's Storm's wedding, _he_ should be the one getting all the attention."

"It's the ivy balcony, nobody goes there. But you can take him to the roof if you're worried about it that much."

"The roof… the roof! You're a genius Wave!" Jet exclaimed.

"Yeah, what about it?" She scoffed. "Go get your man, Jet. I'm probably gonna stay here for a while until Rouge gets tired of dunking on these fools."

Jet didn't need to be told twice. He went back down those stairs as fast as he could… at least until he was in the line of sight of others, then he went back to power-walking. He got stopped by a couple people asking him about something or other but that fortunately didn't take long. Jet couldn't even recall what they asked of him or what he replied, the only permanent thing in his mind at the moment was a hedgehog.

Stepping outside, the cool night air hit him and made his feathers ruffle up a bit. The sky was partly covered by clouds, but those few stars that managed to poke through shone brighter than ever. The moon was full once again but struggling to make itself seen. On the brief moments it was uncovered, it shone its light down onto Mobius to illuminate the handsome hedgehog leaning against the balcony railing. His blue quills made him stand out against the beiges and greens of the environment around him.

"You have my phone number, idiot. You could have just messaged me instead of asking Wave and hoping I bumped into her."

Sonic shrugged. "I sure could! But it wouldn't have been nearly as dramatic, would it?"

Jet slowly walked beside him, leaning against the railing himself. He took a few glances at his face but didn't want to stare too much. His eyes ultimately settled on the sandy emptiness below.

"It's a nice scene, I'll admit it."

"Heh, I'll take that as a win. You brought me to see the moon and I wanted to return the favor. Even if it's not as beautiful as late night Never Lake."

"Don't downplay your plan too much. Whatever it is you're doing, it's sure working."

Both of them remained in silence for a while. Just being in each other's company felt nice, Jet thought. The loud music and chatter of the venue was like a distant whisper to them, drowned out by the sound of their own beating hearts and rapid-paced inner monologues. Jet couldn't know what Sonic was thinking, but he sure hoped it was as sappy as what was going on in his own head.

"So… wedding, huh?" Jet began, glancing over at Sonic. "How does it feel being here? You barely know anyone."

"Feels alright, to be honest. It's just nice to watch people have fun on their own terms sometimes, you know? It helps that they all seem to like me so much. Feels like I could get along with any of them if I wanted to."

"You probably could. I don't know why you'd want to, but it'd be easy."

"Who knows? That's one way to know you better."

Jet didn't reply to that. Mostly because the rest of his family besides his parents wasn't really close enough for him to know any _juicy details_ Sonic might want. But if that's what the hedgehog wanted, then it was alright by him. More reasons for them to see each other on a regular basis were always appreciated.

"Is there gonna be a dance? I'll have you know, I'm the best at dancing." Sonic snickered, shooting a playful smirk towards Jet.

"Probably. But don't expect to be able to breakdance in the middle of a _wedding_, hedgehog." Jet scoffed back.

"That's not all I'm good at. Want a sample?"

He didn't wait for a reply before grabbing Jet's arm and trying to drag him to the center of the balcony.

Jet instead grabbed Sonic by the hand and pulled him away to the corner. "Not here. Come on."

There was a small metal ladder that led to the roof, and he went ahead and climbed it. It led them to the very top of the building, a small stone platform surrounded by railings and illuminated only by the inconsistent light of the moon. Jet stood at the center, waiting for Sonic to climb up before extending an arm towards him.

"Show me what you've got, hedgehog."

Sonic paused for a moment so he could take everything in, then answered with a grin. He took his phone out and unlocked it, alternating his gaze between Jet and the screen.

"Slow down, can't dance without music on. You have any preferences? My sim card doesn't work here in Shamar but I do have some instrumentals downloaded. Just take your pick."

"I know that's a lie and you just want to sing for me. Pick whatever you feel most confident about, I want to see you at your best."

A tint of red spread across Sonic's muzzle, but it was hard to notice under the faint moonlight. "When did you get so good at calling me out, huh? Alright, I'll show you what I'm made of."

Sonic put on what could best be described as cheesy 90s pop, but with the lyrics and vibe of a love song. He had to take a few seconds to warm up his voice before he started singing for real. Both of them went ahead and tried to grab each other by the waist on the exact same spot, causing them both to pause in realization.

"…Did you also ask Amy for dance lessons?" Sonic blinked, being the first one to speak up.

"I thought you were _the best at dancing_, hm?" Jet teased.

"Oh come on, give me a break. I'm trying my best."

"Why don't you show me that then, hedgehog?"

Sonic took the lead, one hand on Jet's waist and the other holding his hand. Trying to sing and lead them along the melody at the same time proved to be more difficult than he had initially expected. Jet was having fun regardless, but he couldn't help but notice the hedgehog's struggle to multitask.

"Go slower."

"Very funny, Jet."

"I'm serious. Sing slower and I'll lead us."

It took a couple seconds for Sonic to realize Jet was 100% serious and not making a "you're too slow" joke. He paused the song on his phone and resumed, with his voice being their guide this time.

He had to adjust some parts of the song to better match their slower pacing, and the mood changed completely to a proper love song, but none of them were complaining. Who said that's not what it was supposed to be, at that very moment in time?

Both of them were a little clumsy, a bit out of sync. But it didn't matter. They were having the time of their life. Giving all of their heart and energy into the dance.

As the music came to a close in Sonic's head, his voice trailed off and was replaced with quiet panting. Jet was taking a moment to catch his breath as well, still holding Sonic close. Their faces almost touching, feeling each other's warmth. Even something as slow as that could be tiring when they gave it their all.

"Not bad, you _did_ learn well at least." Jet managed to say, his tone flickering between genuine and taunting.

Sonic let out a couple giggles of joy. "Can say the same for you. That was perfect!"

"It really wasn't. We kind of sucked."

"But we did have fun. At least I did. Did you have fun?"

"I did too."

Both of them fell into a comfortable silence, content in simply holding and looking at each other with nothing in their minds except adoration.

They were the only ones in the building – no, in the whole world at that very moment. It was _their_ special night, even if just for a couple of minutes. They had gone through so much together. So many challenges, trials and tribulations, but also so many good and wonderful moments. It had all culminated in a single dance.

"Hey?" Sonic began.

"Yeah?"

"I can show you something else I improved at."

"Something tells me it's not your extreme gear racing."

"Oh shut up. Close your eyes."

Jet did as he was asked, but immediately opened them when Sonic gently grabbed his beak and tugged it down slightly. That made him release it and look at Jet with a small pout.

"I said close your eyes. It's not as special if you look at me while I'm at it. I haven't practiced it on actual beak, I don't know how silly I'm going to look doing that."

Jet let out a whine but ultimately complied. Sonic waited a few seconds before going for it again. One hand went on Jet's beak again while the other held onto his waist and pulled him closer. Sonic leaned forward and pressed his lips against the top of Jet's beak. The hawk immediately relaxed his stance and leaned into it as well, almost purring at the touch. Sonic moved to press a multitude of little pecks against the sides of his beak until he reached his cheek.

Sonic was about to go lower, trailing his kisses down to Jet's neck, when the hawk suddenly tensed up. Even facing away from the ladder, he knew there was a pair of eyes fixated on them.

Someone had managed to climb the ladder without making a sound and sneak up on them. And they were now glaring daggers at the lovers, sending a shiver down Jet's spine even though he hadn't actually turned to face the culprit.

Both of them opened their eyes, and Sonic was the first one to take in the shadowy sight of the mystery onlooker.

It was a hawk, his short green and dark green head feathers pointing back and slightly up much like quills. He wore a fairly standard black tuxedo, white shirt and black dress shoes. He carried a jewel-encrusted cane with him, although it was more of a decoration than a walking aid since he didn't seem to be putting any of his body weight onto it. He was taller and a fair bit bulkier than both of them, and although his beak made it hard for Sonic to distinguish his expression, he had _disgust_ in his eyes.

Surge "_Stolen the Fifth_" the Hawk, former leader of the Babylon Rogues had caught Sonic ready to kiss his son on the neck.

Jet was **paralyzed**. All he managed to do was turn his head slightly before freezing once again as he recognized the figure. Why _here_, why _now_? _He must have planned this all along, he must have been watching the two of them having the time of their lives before making his move, he…_

"Are we missing anything important down there, _sir_?" Deep down, Sonic knew who this guy was supposed to be. But he wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. He still held Jet close in his arms.

"_You_ are not missing anything. You shouldn't even be here." He pointed at Jet with the end of his cane. "My son is being incredibly impolite in ignoring his own flesh and blood this way. I've been looking for you this entire time, Jet. Why don't you come give your old man a hug?"

Jet knew that was a lie. He had never seen the guy once in the many hours he had been hanging out at the venue. It was something Surge was saying to try and make him feel guilty, to _control_ him. It had always been that way, trying to implant false memories and behaviors into his head to make him feel like he didn't have control of his own life.

And as much as he hated to admit it, it was working.

Jet started to slowly turn to face his father, but Sonic held his hand and gently squeezed it before he could take any steps forward. "You don't have to do that if you don't want to, Jet. He can't make you."

Surge raised an eyebrow, resting his cane on the ground once again. "Very well, I take we are both adults now. You're right, hedgehog, the time for hugs has long passed. But that doesn't mean I don't want to spend time with my son. There is a table full of people down there waiting for our return, you see. It would be _incredibly rude_ to keep them waiting."

Mentioning other people so Sonic wouldn't be able to question it, a classic. Jet knew about all the tricks at that point, but it was like his brain was still programmed to fall for them regardless. And Sonic was none-the-wiser to the fact that Surge's claim was probably bullshit and that he just wanted to lure Jet into the crowd to make it harder for him to escape.

Sonic eventually let go off Jet, who instinctively clung to him for a short moment before he walked towards his father. Surge let him climb down first, effectively putting himself in between him and Sonic and making communication pretty much impossible. Though he did take the lead to show Jet the table in question, granting the young hawk one last opportunity to give Sonic's hand a gentle squeeze.

After some short greetings, they took seats in a small round table. Both of Wave's and Storm's parents sat there – the latter two separated by an extra cushy baby chair holding Storm and Cloud's egg. He could see a brief glimpse of discomfort flash on the face of everyone at the table, but being quickly replaced by polite smiles.

"There he is, always a _brat_." Surge emitted his best attempt at a goofy chuckle. "I remember you always used to be late to your oud practices, didn't you Jet?"

Jet replied with a nervous smile, immediately receiving sympathy from the other adults on the table.

"Why it's only natural for him to be late, the night is still young and there is much to celebrate!" Wave's father cheered. Sonic was amused at just how short he was – about half his partner's height.

"What's an oud?" Sonic whispered to Jet.

"It's like a guitar for old people," He replied.

Surge had heard their exchange and chimed in, "An oud is a marvelous instrument that is used in a variety of beautiful Shamarian songs, hedgehog. It is one of the many prides of our culture and nation."

"Used to be," Storm's father corrected. "Nowadays all the kids listen to are synths and beeps and boops. Not like that's a bad thing of course, I got pretty attached to some of these newer songs! Isn't that right dear?"

"I _wish_ you hadn't. None of these have any lyrics so you just keep grunting to try and match the computer noises." She looked unamused, but still had a clearly playful tone in her voice.

"The modernization of today's youth is quite a divisive topic, indeed. One thing I do like are these new extreme gear models coming out. Wave is doing a very good job with their designs, is she not?" Surge leaned forward towards the swallow couple. The woman shot him a half glare, but the man was oblivious to where the conversation was headed.

"Ah yes, they are so slick and fast – but oh so sturdy at the same time!" He nodded and smiled. "They're coming up with new components and parts so fast! Though a lot of the innovations are just old tricks used in absolutely fantastic ways. Not even I could have imagined some of this stuff was possible, I'm so proud of my little Wave for—"

"She has done a good job, _yes_." Surge rudely interrupted. "You know what these newer models would be suitable for, my dear Tsunami?"

Wave's mother almost immediately got up from the table as soon as the question was raised. Though her husband managed to calm her down and make her sit once again, she was clearly disgusted by the subject being implied.

"_Surge_." She spoke his name like it was printed on the label of a vile poison. "We are **not **doing this again."

"_What_ are we not doing again, _Mag_? You didn't even let me finish." Surge spoke like he was high and mighty, managing to put a disgusting smirk on his face besides having a beak.

"You do this every year," Storm's father gently placed his rather large hand on the table, "and quite frankly, we're getting really tired of it. Can't you just let it go?"

"Let go off our precious heritage? Absolutely not! How can you even suggest something like that! If it wasn't for..."

Jet quietly excused himself to go to the bathroom before they broke on a full-on discussion at the table. Sonic kept listening for a couple of minutes before he realized Jet probably wasn't actually using the bathroom. He excused himself as well (no one was paying enough attention to care) and rushed in the direction Jet had left towards. There was only one stall occupied, and Sonic could see the same shoes Jet was wearing from the gap on the door.

"Hey, Jet? Are you alright in there?" Sonic knocked on the door. No reply. "Look, I know things are bleak out there but— woah!"

The door was unlocked just enough for Sonic to be forcefully pulled inside, then locked back up. He expected Jet to be… crying, as much as he hated to think about it. But instead the hawk had anger on his face. His fists were balled up besides his body as he leaned against the wall.

"We're not going out there. Not until the ceremony." Jet said through gritted teeth.

"I mean… I was honestly going to suggest doing that, but… you don't look like you're doing too hot, dude." Sonic frowned.

"They have this conversation every time they're together. It's always my dad putting words in my mouth saying it was Wave and Storm's fault the Rogues are over. But guess what, it wasn't! I brought it up and we all agreed on it."

Jet rubbed a hand over the top of his beak. "They discuss for a while then he goes: _Jet wants to reform the Rogues if they're up for it, __**right**_? And I've never said no because I _can't_, so they always go… _we'll talk to them about it_. It's **so** stupid you have no idea."

Sonic looked like he was trying his best but still having trouble comprehending the full weight the situation had on Jet. He pursed his lips, staring at Jet with those gorgeous green eyes. He ultimately stayed silent, prompting Jet to speak again.

"I can tell you're not getting any of this, but just… trust me about this one, okay? We can sneak back onto the roof, or get a room upstairs, or…" Jet trailed off, seeing as Sonic's face filled with more and more determination. He knew what was coming next, and he wasn't at all thrilled about it.

"Do you think you can just… say _no_ this time?"

Jet's first thought was to tell him to fuck off, but he held the words in his mouth for long enough for his brain to rationalize the situation.

"I could…" He had almost no confidence in his tone, breaking the eye contact between them.

"I'm not going to ask why this is so difficult to you because I know it probably involves a lot of memories that are… not my business at all. And I can't ask you to let _me_ do this for you either." Sonic grasped one of Jet's hands between both of his own. "I'm just asking you to try. I promise I'll help you deal with whatever comes out of it, but you'll have to get there on your own. Is that… okay to ask of you, Jet?"

Jet stayed silent for a long, long time. For a while he was avoiding Sonic's gaze like his life depended on it. He reflected on just how things turned out that way. Jet the Hawk? Being vulnerable in front of Sonic the Hedgehog? Sharing some of his deepest traumas and issues with him? All that because they bumped into each other by mere coincidence a couple of months back.

Sonic, the one who proved himself faster than him. The one that, despite having multiple reasons to _despise_ him, ended up as his ally during the first two times they ran into each other. The one that put up with him enough to keep racing with him regularly for six years. Once mere rivals in a racing tracks, now turned close companions.

_What would it take for you to make a simple speed transition?_ A stolen smoothie and a midnight race through Station Square, apparently.

"I can try. I should… get this done with eventually anyways." Jet shook his head, a chuckle somehow emerging from his throat. "You helped me start this, and now you're gonna help me finish it. Chaos, I… can't believe you're helping me with this."

"That's what friends are for, right?" Sonic offered him a thumbs up.

_Friends,_ huh? That almost make-out session at the roof would imply otherwise, but Jet could go with friends for now.

"Right. I think we can go back now."

Both of them exited the stall (and luckily no one was there to see them doing it) and headed back towards their table. It looked like the discussion had died down. Everyone on the table looked extra uncomfortable except for Surge, who looked bored at most.

"Look who's back. I thought you two had enough of an intimate moment back at the roof, you really had to go for a round two while we were here discussing important matters?" Surge swiveled his newfound glass of wine in one hand.

"How old are you, _twelve_? Sonic needed help fixing his bowtie." Jet's lie was pretty convincing coupled with his newfound confidence. He didn't even get flustered about Surge telling everyone on the table and nearby about what he was doing on the roof with Sonic!

Storm's father let out a chuckle at that. "Oh, you too? Gaia, I'm just the worst at fixing those. You should have done like Jet and wore a necklace so no one notices if you don't wear one. That's what I'm doing!"

He gestured at his neck. He wore the same kind of accessory as Storm usually did – two orange pieces of string holding together three metallic chunks. They were angular and polished, but the edges were blunt, probably for the sake of safety.

"I could take a page out of your book, yeah. What kind of necklace is that, though? I've never seen anyone wearing those where I'm from." Sonic leaned in with his elbows on the table.

Surge looked furious that Jet had defied him and that no one was paying attention to him anymore. But then again, no one was paying attention to him anymore so no one noticed that.

"Oh, this? Good question! It's a Babylonian inspired piece made only in this town! It's supposed to represent—"

"The sheer military prowess of our ancestors, yes." Surge interjected. The albatross shot him an unamused look and continued talking to Sonic.

"It's supposed to represent how our ancestors had no use for weaponry, since they didn't start any wars. Here, let me show you." He tugged the pieces close to each other. Sonic let out a small _oh!_ after a couple seconds.

"It's like the tip of a sword!" Sonic pointed out, receiving a smile and a nod in return. "You think I could get one of those for myself? I mean, I'm not really… one of you guys, and I'm hardly a pacifist after so many run-ins with Eggman robots, but..."

"Of course! You might have your hands full of oil, but it's for a good cause. You're a peacekeeper." He grinned, reaching across the table to give Sonic a pat on the back and almost spilling Surge's wine in the process.

"Storm started making some of them in his free time, you should ask him about it some other day." Storm's mother commented.

"What a waste of time." Surge muttered to himself.

Unfortunately for him, Jet heard it. And he wasn't happy. "Wanna say that again? Loud and clear so everyone can hear it."

"I just think… there are better things to do with your spare time." He looked genuinely flustered, focusing his eyes on the wine.

"Oh really? Like what? Like sitting all day inside your massive home and buzzing my phone five times a day? Go fuck yourself."

"_Jet_! Excuse my son, he is rather… _rambunctious_ today." He took a sip from his glass. "Anyways, about our previous discussion, I believe that—"

"Can't you see no one wants to talk about it? Just let it go." Jet glared at him.

A couple of tables around theirs also fell into silence. Everyone had stopped whatever they were doing to look at the argument between the two hawks. As if in response to that, the DJ decreased the music volume slightly.

"You shut your damn mouth about it or I'm telling Storm to call security. I thought me blocking your number already told you what my opinion on reforming the Rogues is."

"You haven't given it enough thought. It's an invaluable part of our culture you're throwing away." Surge grabbed his cane and tapped Jet on the ankle with it. Jet yanked it away from him and handed it to Wave's mother, who broke it in half over her knee.

"No it's **not**! There isn't going to be any change in the world if we take some gems or steal from a museum for the sake of people that don't even exist anymore."

"What are you talking about? Of course the Babylonians still exist, look around you!"

"All I see are mobians. All of us. The Babylonians cast aside their identities so we could all live in harmony and **YOU **are the one disrespecting their decision!"

"Me? How dare you. How dare you HOW DARE YOU—" Before Surge could finish getting up and raise his voice any longer, a hand was firmly placed on his shoulder. Surge seemed to immediately recognize it and go quiet, even if he hadn't turned around to look at its owner.

"Honey? I think I left something in the car, would you mind helping me get there?" Faiza forcefully grabbed him out of the chair and pulled him towards the exit. Everyone in a ten table radius went silent until Storm's father let out a sigh of relief. The festivities continued shortly after that.

* * *

"Um. Hi."

Somehow, giving a speech in front of hundreds of people he barely knew felt way less pressuring than that one time he had to give an explanation to a handful of Sonic's friends he was vaguely acquainted with. He could discern Wave's worried look and Storm's excited face among the many in the crowd – as well as his mother, who now had her pristine white gloves stained with a bit of blood. His father was nowhere to be seen and so was Sonic.

"I wanna thank… everyone that came here today and those who couldn't make it but are still celebrating this special time wherever they are. I'm going to read some of their messages to Storm for a bit."

Wave ran him down on some basic points for a decent speech before he got up on stage. And boy did he need it, he didn't expect to have so much happen right before his time came. He was given a list of things he should and shouldn't say, and each item was slowly vanishing from his memory the longer he stood up there.

"Now, I could tell a story about Storm falling off his board. Or triggering traps by accident. There's a ton of those. But I think I'm going to cut him some slack today. And not only because Cloud could snap me in half with a single touch – though I can't deny that's a big part of it."

That got a laugh out of pretty much everyone in the audience, making Jet relax a little.

"I just want to… thank Storm for everything he's done for me over the years. We've known each other for… Ten years now? Twelve? And believe it or not, he's taught me quite a lot! Cooking, woodworking… even swordfighting! And of course, he ended up having to teach me first-aid after that one lesson."

More laughter. Good!

"I think I have to quote something now? IS THAT RIGHT WAVE?" He hadn't forgotten the steps just yet, that was a bit. Wave just facepalmed, unaware. "Pfft, always blaring down my ear except when it's actually something important. Better not want me to make a speech at her wedding."

Jet unfolded a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket as the audience was having a laugh at Wave's expense.

"Let's see here… Oh, I like this one. Pretty sure I picked it myself."

He cleared his throat.

"_Family isn't always blood. It's the people in your life who want you in theirs; the ones who accept you for who you are. The ones who would do anything to see you smile and who love you no matter what._ Storm was always like a big brother for me, and I couldn't have asked for a better one."

This time, he received a round of applause. He did a little polite bow before grabbing the microphone stand again.

"Just don't ask me who said that. There's like a hundred people on the internet all claiming to have said that and no amount of treasure hunting prepared me for finding the origin of a pinterest image."

That went pretty well overall!

"I've talked for long enough, let's keep the party going. Now's the time I would call for a toast, but I forgot to bring my glass with me."

Just like they had planned, Jet extended his arm and Sonic zipped by to put a glass full of purple liquid on his open hand.

"This better not be wine, I'm 20!"

"It's grape juice, no worries!" Sonic shouted from afar.

"Of course it is, I'm still the team's baby after all this time." Jet walked offstage while sipping from his juice while the audience exploded with all sorts of positive responses.

The rest of the wedding went without a hitch. Storm and Cloud got married, everyone had a blast at the dance floor and after that Jet and a select few stayed behind to give the finishing touches on the cleaning. Jet and Sonic had gone upstairs to tidy up the rooms where no one would be staying. Jet was sweeping the floor of a bedroom someone had accidentally shattered a glass in when Sonic appeared leaning against the doorway.

"What a party that was, huh? I can't say I've ever seen this much energy come from something like a wedding! Not that I've been in many, but still." Sonic wiped the small beads of sweat that were forming on his forehead. Nights in Shamar were cold, but a couple hours of dancing were enough to counter that.

"You know what they say, sometimes family doesn't suck." Jet smirked, putting the last of the glass shards onto a container to dispose of them properly later.

"Who says that? I've never heard that before." Sonic raised an eyebrow.

"I just said it, dumbass."

That got a cute little snort out of Sonic. The hedgehog walked closer, taking the broom off Jet's hands and holding it instead.

"You mind if I continue my… demonstration from earlier?"

Jet rolled his eyes and playfully pushed Sonic off him.

"As if. That was that, you have to _earn it_ if you want to do it again."

Sonic looked genuinely offended for a second before his face softened into a determined grin. "Friday night then? Shadow got some time off work so we can spend the day searching for the rest of the sword, if you want. Something tells me I'm not getting anything off you if I take you on a coffee shop date."

"You know me too well, hedgehog."

* * *

**Author's note: Okay, credits time!**

**\- The song Sonic sang is Suddenly by Jun'ichi Kanemaru (Sonic's Japanese VA). Though I had the cover of it by Emi Jones in mind for the slower version Sonic sang.**

**\- Wave's parents' names and designs were inspired by designs made by nostalgic_rogue on Twitter.**

**\- As for the quote Jet read... I genuinely couldn't find out who the actual author of that is.**


	15. Catch

"_You have to earn it if you want to do it again? _Can you believe I said that? I'm a fucking idiot I wanted to make out with him right there. Laugh at me all you want, I deserve it."

Jet slammed his face against his pillow while his phone broadcast Wave's laughing fit directly into his ear. His cheeks were burning and so was his ego.

He was back at his apartment in Central City. He had moved out of Wave's the day after the wedding, even though they were to discuss about his extreme gear career (what a rhyme) some time soon. A lot had happened happened at that wedding, and Jet definitely needed some time to process everything.

Jet had finally broken ties with his dad _for good _and even got confirmation Sonic liked him back! He was still having a hard time convincing himself that night hadn't been one huge hyper-vivid dream. It was too good to be true in all the right ways, but stressing enough to be believable.

Except… That last part was _actually _too good to be true. He never got any clear verbal confirmation on how Sonic felt about seeing him as more than a friend. Sure, he was about to get kissed on the neck before his father interrupted him, but that didn't mean anything… Right?

Talking to Wave through the phone was a good way to rationalize everything. He was still way too embarrassed to discuss his "love life" (if it could even be called that already), but he had to admit she spilled some helpful advice _once in a while_. And he also needed someone to tell him when he was being ridiculous every once in a while. Not _too _often, mind you, but sometimes it was just what he needed to hear.

"Well, at least you two are going on a date tomorrow, right? So that means you two are a thing I guess." Wave's words managed to make him lift his head up once again. He had almost forgotten about his date with Sonic!

"... Are we? It's not a date though, right?"

"You told me he specifically used the word date."

"Yeah but like… Is it a _date _date? Or just like… A date?"

"Jet I'm going over to your apartment and I'm going to smack you. Are you even listening to yourself?"

Okay, maybe he was needlessly complicating the whole situation. But still! He wanted to hear Sonic say it. He wouldn't be able to rest until he got a clear confirmation from Sonic about whether the two of them were actually _a thing _or not. He didn't _mind _not being a thing as long as he could continue to hang out and have fun with him, but of course he preferred for them to be a thing.

"...Do you think we're a thing?"

Wave sounded so exasperated Jet could perfectly picture the face she was making. "How do I— How am _I _supposed to know that?! Why the hell are you asking me that?!"

"I mean— you're dating someone! Did you never go through something like that?"

"Yeah, and I didn't find out until I went ahead and _asked her_ about it! It really is that simple!"

As always, Wave had a point. And also as always, Jet wasn't going to admit it.

"It's not that simple, Wave! There's more to it than that!"

"Oh yeah? Like what?"

Jet remained in silence for a full five seconds before he hung up the phone and dunked his face onto his pillow again. She just didn't get it! He had no idea what was going on inside Sonic's head most of the time. Maybe that was an issue? He felt like he should know a bit more about Sonic than he used to by that point, but most of the hedgehog's personal side was still a mystery to him.

It was _weird _to think about it – and so he decided _not to_.

It was late afternoon by the time he was done being needlessly dramatic about his situation. The sun was starting to set and he still needed to prepare himself for the following day's expedition. Both in regards to the Death Ruins trip itself and for the possible progression of his and Sonic's relationship.

The former was simple enough. He prepared a small bag with everything he'd need — his fans, the sword hilt, some lighting and a couple of other general tomb-raiding aids. He didn't usually bring his extreme gear with him when raiding ancient places, since it was best to be extra careful with those, but the "Death" in Death Ruins probably implied they might need to run away from _something_.

As for the latter, well…

He still had Amy's phone number. At first he was reluctant to call her specifically for help, since she might still have some repressed feelings for Sonic that might come back to hurt her at the mention of the subject. But she was the one who offered to help plan their race to Never Lake in the first place, so that probably meant she was over it… right?

Maybe not, but who else could he ask for help? Wave obviously wasn't being very helpful at the moment. Storm was on his honeymoon in Apotos and Jet really didn't want to get in the way of that with his silly hedgehog issues. The last thing his mother would probably want to talk about after that wedding was _men_. Shadow… he could ,_maybe_ talk to Shadow about it, but that would make their adventure way more awkward.

Amy it was, then. The amount of details he shared with her about his feelings for Sonic was _embarrassing _to think about, but something about her made him extremely comfortable opening himself up. The fact that they pretty much only talked through text helped. He would have probably exploded trying to say how handsome he thought Sonic was out loud.

By the time he was done with their discussion it was well past midnight. Jet didn't remember having eaten dinner, but there were dishes by the sink he was yet to wash. He sent Amy an apology for making her stay up so late and went to sort that out. All that was left for him to do afterwards was get a good night of sleep so he was awake enough not to make a fool of himself in front of Sonic and Shadow the following morning.

Jet could tell it was going to be a very busy weekend.

* * *

"...So, why's this place called Death Ruins again? We've been walking around for half an hour and I'm pretty sure we're not dead yet."

"That's what me and Shadow kept trying to figure out while waiting for you, Flicky. You still have bed head and everything." Sonic waved his finger at him, teasing him for his "late" arrival.

Jet overslept, because of course he did. He was only late by about three minutes but that was already enough for him to get a wave of taunts coming from Sonic. The two wasted even more time throwing quips back and forth until Shadow had to pretend to clear his throat really loudly to get their attention.

Their first action as a group was taking a walk around the perimeter to see if they could detect any external traps. Something was definitely off already – that much was clear by just how _silent _the place was. Not a single animal could be seen or heard anywhere around the ruins. The only noises they were able to pick up were their own footsteps as well as the faint sound of running water.

Shadow was the one among them that had been there before, but his knowledge about the place's layout wasn't of much use anymore. The Black Arms had completely disassembled the geography when they arrived, elevating and moving around pieces of land in odd and seemingly nonsensical ways. They had also littered the place with their corrupted ooze, causing some of the plant and animal life to mutate into beings with varying degrees of deadliness.

"They were using this place as temporary shelter while retreating from Westopolis." Shadow explained. "Beats me why they'd spend so much energy messing up the place if they were on their way out anyways."

But everything was fixed now! Thanks to the efforts of countless archeologists, architects and landscapers, the pieces were put back together properly to form a cohesive structure – as cohesive as _ruins _could be. Its glory was sheltered from the weather by the combined tops of many different thick-leaved trees. The main gate was mostly destroyed, surrounded on both sides by canals that ended in a small lake.

Shadow transported them to the other side using Chaos Control – which left Jet disoriented for quite a while – and they walked into what appeared to be a garden. Most of the plants that had been there originally got trampled by the Black Arms, with the survivors getting harvested by government people for safekeeping. They were replaced by berry bushes and flowers that matched the surrounding vegetation, which Jet found quite lame.

"Doesn't look like a deadly dungeon to me," Sonic said, stopping to smell one of the flowers, "more like the summer home of some ancient king or something."

Jet wasn't so sure either. The building's shape reminded him of an ancient church or a temple, but there were no runes or symbols on the outside indicating what deity it could have been dedicated for. The canals were interesting, though – what was the point of them if there were no crops to water or waterways to cross into? They could have been built for decorative purposes only, but that was a lot of effort put into something with no real function.

Either Sonic was right and this was the work of some royal with too much money, or there was something more than met the eye.

"I say we go inside already." Shadow had his arms crossed over his chest, taping his foot on the ground. "I'm sure whatever puzzle we have to solve doesn't involve staring at the grass for twenty minutes."

"What, are you in a hurry Indiana Yawnes?" Sonic taunted as he stood up once more. Shadow scoffed.

"Yes. The longer we stand still, the greater the chance of triggering a trap is. We could have already activated some form of security system without realizing it."

"Wouldn't the Black Arms have triggered it first, though?" Jet raised an eyebrow. "I doubt whoever put this place back together would have rearmed the traps as well. Not intentionally at least."

"Are you saying you'd rather stay here and smell the flowers then? Whatever you say, _legendary wind master_."

That seemed to do the trick. Jet huffed and grabbed his board off the ground, finally stepping inside the ruins. Rays of sunshine illuminated the place through what they assumed used to be stained glass windows. The room was empty and the path got thinner as they walked forward, until it became barely two-mobians wide. An elongated but not very steep stairway led them to a large open chamber with no windows at all.

Jet put on his goggles and took his lantern out of his bag. He cranked it to the highest brightness possible and placed it on where he assumed the center of the room was. The light travelled along the intricate patterns of the stone floor until it gently touched the walls, revealing that they were composed entirely of murals. _Echidna _murals, with some depicting some figures the three of them were instantly familiar with.

"Is this… Chaos?" Sonic grabbed the lantern and toned the brightness down before starting to walk around the room.

Chaos, Master Emerald, Pachacamac. Everything checked out. Except the fact that those murals were there in the first place.

"I don't get it. This place is pretty far from where Angel Island used to be when it was grounded." Sonic brought a hand to his chin in thought.

"Maybe they made this after it started floating." Jet shrugged. "So people on the surface would remember them or whatever."

"I'm pretty sure Knuckles can change the course of Angel Island using the Master Emerald, so that is a valid theory. But I'm still not convinced this was _all_ their work, though." Shadow commented.

"Right? The outside doesn't look like echidna architecture at all. Maybe someone built it on top of this. Or maybe they built it together with someone els— hey!" Sonic pouted when Jet snatched the lantern away from him.

"Like Shadow said, we won't ever find out if we don't keep walking."

The end of the chamber led to a long, narrow hallway. So narrow that Jet couldn't afford to hold the lantern in front of himself anymore and instead had to pull out a flashlight. At the end was another set of stairs, but this time going down instead of up.

Sunlight blinded their eyes for a moment. Death Ruins was built a couple feet away from the end of a cliff, and the room they found themselves in was partly embedded on the cliff wall. The stone around them was older than the kind found above, and the architectural style was different yet again. The lore wasn't plastered over the walls, but instead on the floor in the form of a mosaic.

Jet was already starting to hoist Sonic up on his shoulders before Shadow sighed and instead hovered close to the ceiling using his air shoes.

"See anything interesting from up there, killjoy?" Sonic walked to the corner of the room, dragging Jet along with him.

"Yes but I can't make sense of it." Shadow squinted. "Looks like a bunch of islands to me. There's people in between them and there's a big orb in the middle. Maybe the sun. Also two creatures I don't recognize staring at each other from each side."

Jet sighed, running a hand over his beak. "Shadow no offense but you suck at this. Let's stick to the original plan and have Sonic go on top."

Shadow groaned but ultimately complied. He was the one at the very bottom, with Jet on his shoulders and Sonic at the top. It took quite a bit of shuffling around and almost tumbling for the blue blur to get a good idea of what he was looking at, but he was very confident in his hypothesis.

"I think this is supposed to be a depiction of one of the Gaia cycles." Sonic explained. "Like, the islands kinda look like the continents. The orb must be the planet's core. And as for the creatures… One of them looks a lot like Dark Gaia, that's for sure. I don't know what Chip's monster form looks like so I can't tell if that's supposed to be him or not."

"_Chip_? And how do you know what Dark Gaia looks like, huh?" Jet asked.

"Because I was there when it awakened a couple of years ago?" Sonic shrugged. "Got a pretty good look while I was kicking their butt."

Jet looked astounded for a brief moment, then rolled his eyes. "Of course, I should have guessed _you _were involved in that."

"Geez, I was expecting at least a thank you. You could have fallen off your board right into the abyss, you know that?"

"As if! Look who you're talking to, hedgehog. I have absolute control of my extreme gear at all times, I would never die in such a way." Jet (gently) threw Sonic off him before getting off Shadow's shoulders himself.

"But these people did." Shadow said, walking away from the two. He crouched down and tapped a fingertip against one of the mosaic pieces with a vaguely humanoid figure on it. There wasn't nearly enough detail to distinguish the nature of their situation, but their positioning was a pretty good indicator that they were _not _having a good time.

"That's two catastrophes in a row. Maybe that's why it's called the Death Ruins."

Shadow could almost see the gears turning inside of their heads before they let out a small "oooh" and nodded in agreement. The three of them took a moment to admire the scenery from the opening on the cliff wall before diving back into the darkness.

The next chamber was on the same height as the Gaia mosaic room, but there were no openings for sunlight to get in. Even with the combined efforts of Jet's lantern and flashlight, they didn't find anything of interest. Most of the ceiling had been torn off, making visible the natural dirt and stone the cliff was made out of. Some pieces of it that survived implied the existence of another mosaic, but there weren't enough of them to figure out what it used to depict.

After that was a halfway with a gradual descent that eventually led to what looked like an elevator. The same kind present behind the Master Emerald altar, Jet noted. He didn't tell them that the ride was probably going to take at least a full hour, in fear that they might refuse going deeper for now. He really hoped they wouldn't notice it.

They did notice it, but there was nothing they could do about it. There was no button on the actual elevator to bring them back up, and if Shadow Chaos Control-ed them away they'd risk getting it stuck on the lower level forever.

Their descent was filled with lots of quips, puns and the soothing sound of a waterfall somewhere around them in the deep darkness.

Jet was greeted by the even more familiar sight of a blood-activated door. He didn't explain what the apparatus was until after he was already dripping into the receptacle, causing the two hedgehogs to freak out a little. But instead of a cramped room with a treasure, it lead into yet another hallway. But this one was different.

The two canals showed up at each side again, but their flow was slower and quieter than before. Neither the room nor the water felt hot at all, yet the stream released a thick mist into the room.

Bright blue lights guided them forward into a wider hall. Metallic statues depicting bird humanoids were present in each side, most of them in pristine condition. Some of them held weapons, others proudly showed off what looked like writing instruments. A couple of them possessed no extra objects, but were made out of a golden material as opposed to the copper-like sheen most of them had.

They stood each stop a small podium with ancient Babylonian inscriptions. Jet tried using the translator necklace to make sense of them, but they each came back as either non-existent or unrelated words. He instead chose to simply transcribe them to their modern alphabet, and that's when he came to the (rather obvious) realization that those were actually _names_.

The artificial fog became thicker and thicker, to the point Jet had to pull out his lantern yet again. More and more warrior-like statues started showing up as they walked forwards, with two holding spears up high above the small gate that led them to a wide circular chamber.

Water pooled on the marble-like floor beneath them, although it was barely deep enough to coat the soles of their shoes. The walls were mostly clear of any markings save for the section directly in front of them. Two ancient Babylonian verses were carved on each side of a mural. It depicted a crowd of humanoid pictures holding up what appeared to be a comet. A completely _black _comet.

Shadow tensed at the sight. "Is this supposed to be…"

Jet walked close to the walls and scanned one half of the text with his device. After a couple seconds, the hologram screen projected itself into view containing the translation.

_For seven stars we traveled_

_Witnessing the barren, the corrupted_

_A threat we tried so hard to ignore_

_And it came for us_

_We fly in shame as those who stayed behind fight for a lost cause_

_For null our feeble efforts were_

_But null our legacy shall not be_

It was at that point that they became aware of whatever was going on in the center of the room. About eight or so statues were placed in a circle, all holding what looked like sword hilts with no blades attached to them. In the middle stood an unknown object, monolithic in feeling yet short in size. The only unique thing about it was the slot located on the front. It had two openings that reminded Jet of the metal prongs he saw while inspecting his own bladeless hilt for the first time.

"So is this like a blade vending machine." Sonic shrugged, looking around with a hint of a grimace on his lips. "I don't see a credit card slot around here, so I guess it's free! Can I have the honor, Jet?"

Jet was deep in thought, trying to make sense of the lore ahead of him. Shadow was in a similar state, having the half of the puzzle the hawk was missing. Sonic had all of it already solved and reviewed in his mind, but he acted like he was none the wiser. He was prancing around the room, splashing water all over and acting like an uncomfortable toddler trying to make his parents hurry up.

After a couple of seconds without a reply, Sonic reached into Jet's bag and snatched the artifact without asking. Jet either didn't notice or was too focused on translating the other half of the text to care.

Shadow did notice, however.

"Sonic", he began, worry in his eyes, "please resist your urges and wait for Jet to finish so we can discuss whether or not what you're about to do is a bad idea."

"How bad of an idea could it be?" Sonic shrugged. "Last time I was in a temple and I put one thing inside the other, the continents shifted back into place."

"_Sonic._" Shadow didn't need any more words to make Sonic take a step back.

"Fine, fine! I'll wait for Google Translate to load and then I'll do this. Only if it still sounds like a good idea, or course. Deal?"

Shadow wasn't convinced, but he was far too distracted himself to give Sonic a proper scolding.

Soon enough, the holographic screen flashed up once again.

_For seven stars we traveled_

_Witnessing the barren, the corruption_

_A status we were so stubborn to uphold_

_And it is coming for us_

_We cast aside our role as observes and seek a new home to fight for _

_For null our past has become_

_But null the Black Arms shall be_

As soon as the last line of text was printed out, a click could be heard coming from the center of the room. Jet and Shadow turned in time to see Sonic backing away with empty hands, the hilt now lodged firmly into the monolith.

It began humming. The lines they assumed were cracks started glowing a bright blue, power flowing from deep underground towards the artifact. Heating and charging it, until all the noise stopped and the hilt was dropped on the floor with a tiny splash.

"... Nothing?" Sonic finally let out after a while. He picked up the object and examined it in his hand. The only difference was that the hole had been filed with a blue crystal-like object.

"Maybe it's broken." Jet suggested, walking very slowly towards Sonic. "Probably not. You know what happened when we lowered our guard for the golden rope. Just… Don't make any sudden movements."

"Be careful with that, Sonic." Shadow echoed, which only seemed to make Sonic more restless.

"C'mon, this thing is completely harmless now. We can't even put the blade back together anymore." He pouted, walking around and gesturing as if he was holding an actual sword.

"Maybe something happened somewhere else. Maybe the sword is about to explode in your hands. Or you just revived an ancient swordsman that's about to kick our butts." Jet extended his arm. "Give it to me."

"No way, Flicky! Finders keepers. I'm kidding, of course, but I just wanna hold it for now."

"You're gonna hurt yourself, dumbass. Give me the sword!"

Sonic jump back and pointed the non-existent blade at Jet. "Hah! Very bold words coming from someone who didn't bring his fans."

Jet opened his beak to respond, but then closed it back up. Indeed, he had forgotten those at home.

Shadow spoke in his behalf. "I should have expected you to completely disregard my advice. Jet is right, put that thing back in the bag and let's get out of here before whatever _you _just triggered comes back to bite us in the ass."

Sonic rolled his eyes and pointed the weapon at Shadow instead. Before any witty remarks could come out of his mouth, however, the tip started flashing and releasing sparks all over in the blink of an eye.

Sonic tried aiming it somewhere else, but it was too late. A beam was already traveling through the air and heading straight for Shadow. The only one whose reaction came out in time was Jet, who jumped in front of Shadow to shield him from the blast.

It made contact with his abdomen first. It was like a blizzard and an inferno all at once. An electrocution-like sting that spread across each of his nerves, imaginary needles prickling every millimeter of flesh. Pain, an enormous amount of it. Spreading from the impact point to the rest of his body faster than his brain could process it.

And then, null.

* * *

Everything came back to him at once. Death Ruins. Blood door. Black Arms. Sonic.

_Sonic_.

In a sudden burst of strength, Jet forced his eyes open and tried to sit straight up – two actions that brought him immediate consequences. His eyes burned and every one of his muscles screamed in pain. But he was still somewhat successful, his breath quickening because of the sudden strain.

He was on a hospital bed, with recently changed cool sheets draped over his body. There was an IV drip attached to his arm and an oxygen mask placed over his beak. He pulled out the latter with little effort, since his lungs were working just fine as far as he knew. The desk to his left was littered with cards, flowers and other gifts.

In front of him stood a doctor with the most horrified expression someone with a beak could make. A bird mobian, short and clad in the usual medical outfit as well as thick-rimmed square glasses.

"Well, either my skills are better than I thought or we gave you the wrong procedure", they let out a nervous chuckle, "because that's the shortest time I've ever seen someone awake after getting struck by lightning."

Jet raised an eyebrow. "What? I didn't get struck by lightning."

"Memory issues. That's a common side effect for survivors." The doctor scribbled something down on their clipboard.

"I don't have memory issues, I'm telling the truth!" Jet threw his arms up in frustration. "I got hit by a laser sword."

The doctor blinked, then grimaced and took more notes while whispering under their breath. "Cognitive functions impaired, this is not looking good so far..."

"Fuck off." Jet leaned aside and started going through his gifts.

Most of them were premade "get well soon" cards – which Jet did appreciate, but they didn't do much for him in terms of entertainment. There were also a couple of candies and snacks that Jet ate despite the doctor's desperate pleas.

"Listen, you… What's your name again?"

"Doctor Zephyr."

"Chaos, of course you have a name like that." Jet rubbed his head, trying to mitigate his newfound headache. "Listen, Zeph. I'm fine! I'm awake, I'm hungry… and I could probably get up right now! All you have to do is take this thing off my arm and give me some clothes."

"I'm afraid I cannot do that. You'll need to stay here for at least another two days or so. Your premature recovery is… fortunate, yes. But also very unorthodox." He explained, walking beside the bed. "Can I take a look at your scars?"

Jet raised his hospital gown. The spot where the beam made direct contact with his abdomen was devoid of any feathers, although the skin had healed for the most part. There was a small Lichtenberg figure that spread out from the entry wound, accompanied by a few bald spots.

"Woah."

"Woah indeed! This looked way more… unpleasant when you were brought here. We have a ton of tests to run, yes, many of them..." Zephyr walked towards the door and pressed a button. "But first, you have visitors."

As soon as the door opened, a handful of his friends rushed into the room like a stampede. Wave, Storm, Faiza, Amy, Cream, Shadow and… Tails? Sonic was nowhere to be found, which left him worried and a little upset, but he was able to shrug it off while talking to people. Having all of them take a moment out of their time to go visit him made him feel… really good!

Something that caught his eye was Shadow's new outfit, however. He was wearing a peach-colored piece of cloth that fit somewhat loosely over his chest. It was clear he was trying to hide something, since he also had his arms crossed over his chest the whole time. It wasn't until after Jet was alone in the room with him and Tails that the fox decided to ask about it.

"So… why are you wearing Sonic's old binder?" Tails raised an eyebrow. He had been carrying some kind of potted plant – a kind of ivy, if Jet's limited knowledge on plants was right.

"Bandage-white is not my color." Shadow joked.

"Did the beam go through me?" Jet frowned a little.

"Indeed, although thanks to your efforts I am very much alive and well." Shadow gestured for Zephyr to leave the room for a moment, then he lifted the binder up.

His wound was in a similar stage of healing as Jet's was, but something was different about it. The shape didn't follow the path of any blood vessels or structures the energy could have travelled through, it looked more intentional. Like a _symbol_.

A symbol Jet was clueless about, though. For him, it looked like a spiral with spikes pointing out of it towards various directions. Tails seemed to recognize it, judging from his grimace.

"Black Arms… Shadow, are you g—"

"Yes, I'm okay. Both physically _and _emotionally." He was quick to put the binder back on. "I'll be keeping this on for the time being, though. I don't want the conspiracy theorists at G.U.N. thinking this means Black Doom is coming back or something."

"Are you sure? LIke, _really _sure? Please be honest, Shadow. I know the Black Arms used to be a… touchy subject for you." Tails pursed his lips.

"I'm sure. They are no longer a part of this universe and no longer a part of me." Shadow nodded. "I'm not going to let them get the best of me yet again just because some thousand year old taser mislabeled me."

Tails kept up his concerned expression for a few seconds before it softened into a melancholic smile. Shadow turned towards Jet.

"What about you? Have you processed our finds yet?" Shadow asked. "I'm not trying to make you hurry up, I'm just curious."

Jet shrugged in response. "Haven't had a lot of time to think about it, I just woke up like thirty minutes ago. But… yeah. The Babylonians were too proud to help others and ended up as a victim themselves. That sword would have helped during the Black Arms invasion. Knocking those things out of the airship without an actual weapon was a pain in the ass..."

"That's it?"

"Yeah? Did I miss something after I got knocked out or?"

"I thought… you would have been more conflicted about your heritage. About the difference between truth and tale. About _me_."

"I'm kind of miffed about your ancestors killing mine but you're hot so I'm willing to overlook it if you behave."

Shadow raised an eyebrow.

"Have you never heard of jokes before? Chaos." Jet groaned. "Listen, I stopped caring when I found out they were aliens. Plus, Sonic told me you finished the Black Arms off for good so I should be thanking you if anything."

"That's… one way to look at it, I suppose." Shadow looked a tiny bit upset. "I wish I could have let go of my past that easily."

"Whatever alien bullshit happened and is still happening out there is not my business anymore. As long as I can still race, I don't care about all that."

"You sound like Sonic."

"I'm going to assume that's a complim— wait, where's Sonic?" Jet turned his attention to Tails. "Is he alright?"

"Physically, yeah. He was… Supposed to be here, but he ran off somewhere as soon as the doors opened." Tails shrugged and handed him the ivy. "Here, I'm pretty sure he was going to give this to you."

Jet was puzzled at Sonic's attitude and choice of gift, but he still appreciated it regardless.

He was still going to act cool about it, of course. "Tch, damn hedgehog zaps me and can't even bring me flowers. I wonder if our date is still up…"

"You guys were going on a date?" Tails' eyes widened. "Like, a _date _date?"

"It was supposed to be last night." Jet scratched the back of his head. "Just tell Sonic that I'm not mad at him for shooting me but I _will_ be if he doesn't show up tonight."

Doctor Zephyr soon came back into the room and forced them to bid farewell to Jet. After finding out the most painful way that he wasn't able to walk comfortably, he was dragged all over the hospital to perform a multitude of tests.

All the major surgeries had been performed successfully while he was unconscious, and it didn't look like he would have any lasting side effects aside from small bald spots where the beam entered and left his body. The muscle pains were a minor concern but a major annoyance. If they didn't decrease in the following days, he would probably have to look into physical therapy. Which would prolong his hospital stay even further and jeopardize his grand return to extreme gear racing.

It was late afternoon when he had been released from testing. Wave had dropped by once more to give him his phone and his board, the latter of which she had specifically told him not to "do anything dumb" with. He would end up ignoring that suggestion eventually, but for now he settled on simply checking his phone for more "get well soon" messages.

None of which he got from Sonic. _Nothing_. The app showed he had last logged on ten minutes ago. Jet's best guess was that he felt guilty for accidentally hospitalizing him and needed some time to quell his negative emotions – but he'd at least have sent an apology if that was the case, yes? No? He didn't know.

Jet once again had the realization that, after all this time, Sonic was the one he learned the least about. They hung out and had their moments, but at the end of the day it all felt somewhat hollow. Sonic had gotten a crash course into his past, while the only notable info Jet had gotten was how good of a kisser Sonic was (a very good one).

Maybe… maybe confronting him about it could wait. He had to think about their relationship. How it was currently and how he wanted to go on about it in the future. Even if they didn't end up becoming a thing, he still wanted to becoming familiar with more than Sonic's public persona. Sonic was all he thought about, yet he had barely (if ever) asked him about his past or his interests besides racing. He felt like he had messed that up. _Bad_.

Jet let out a sigh. They had taken off his IV drip so he could now freely walk around the room. His legs begged him to lay back down every time he took a step, but he just couldn't stay still in a time like this. He made his way to the window and opened it, letting the cool early-evening breeze hit his feathers and calm his mind.

Where was he anyways? That was probably written down on his medical file, but he wanted to try and guess just by looking at advertisements as a fun little time killer.

The first one that caught his attention was a huge glowing billboard for a casino called Casinopolis. A skyscraper belonging to a company called KDR Records caught his attention next. He had to take a break from the game shortly after catching sight of a place called "Goblin Nightclub" and breaking into a fit of giggles.

What was that in the distance? A smoothie shop that was beginning to close. It was way too far for Jet to take in any details, but he was sure there were still a handful of customers inside. It must have been a popular place. Most of them were leaving already, taking their smoothies back them with home so they could— _no fucking way that was Sonic_.

It was unmistakably Sonic the Hedgehog. His quills glowed a beautiful blue as he leaned against a lone streetlamp. He was holding a smoothie in each hand before he put one down to reach for his phone. Jet immediately made a sprint for his own. Lo and behold, his status changed to online. But he still didn't say a word to Jet for several minutes.

Looks like it was time to take matters into his own hands.

**[HAWK]**: hey dickhead I got your weed

Jet couldn't discern Sonic's expression from that far away, but he did see Sonic hesitating before typing something on his phone.

**[BlueBlur]**: heh sorry all the flower shops were closed so I improvised

**[BlueBlur]:** I'll have you know that's from my garden and everything from there has lots of care and love put into it

**[HAWK]:** whatever man

**[HAWK]:** like in the most respectful way possible

**[HAWK]:** you coming to visit me or what?

Sonic's reply took a good while to come. Jet noticed Sonic would type something, then reflect on it for a bit before the typing indicator went up once again. What was taking him so long?

**[BlueBlur]:** uhhh idk

_Really now?_

**[HAWK]:** wym?

**[BlueBlur]:** jet I think we need to talk about what happened

**[HAWK]:** then come over and we can talk

**[BlueBlur]:** I don't want to stress you even more, might slow down your recovery or something

**[HAWK]:** really now?

**[BlueBlur]:** yeah really

**[BlueBlur]:** I'm worried about you man

**[HAWK]:** then come see how I'm doing

**[BlueBlur]:** I think it's best if we leave that to some other day I'm already at home

**[HAWK]:** since when

**[BlueBlur]:** uhhh lunch

**[HAWK]:** before or after you bought me a smoothie?

**[HAWK]:** you fucking clown

Jet could see Sonic's whole body tense up. He kept his eyes on the screen, unmoving, until his phone locked up automatically. That made him snap back to reality and look around frantically, until his eyes stumbled across Jet's window. They made eye contact for just a moment, but that felt like the longest moment in Jet's entire life.

And then Sonic took off, not before pocketing his phone and picking up the second smoothie.

Jet immediately started shouting in Sonic's general direction, but he was too far away to even hear him. Time for plan B, which consisted of ignoring Wave's very valuable advice to not do anything dumb. As most of his B-plans went throughout his life.

His entire body felt like it was getting scorched as he walked across the room to retrieve his board. It was like a last resort measure to stop him from potentially hurting himself both physically and emotionally. Which Jet masterfully ignored. He got the hospital windows wide open and took a few steps back before jumping out of them on his board.

Jet landed on the roof of a nearby building and proceeded to try and catch up to Sonic. He stuck to the rooftops so he could keep him in his field of view at all times, and maybe even follow him undetected.

Unfortunately, the people of Station Square weren't used to seeing a bright green hawk wearing only a hospital gown riding his extreme gear on the rooftops, so he made quite a stir wherever he passed by. Enough of a stir to get Sonic to turn around and run faster at the sight of Jet speeding towards him.

Sonic kept making sharp turns in quick succession to try and lose Jet, but the hawk was always right on his tail. Neither of them could speed up too much or they'd risk running into a wall or over a pedestrian, so the distance between them remained the same up until they left the residential district.

They started racing on the train tracks somewhere along the way. In a straight road such as that, Sonic could go all out with his running. That is, if he was to release the smoothies, which he refused to for some reason. But his current speed was enough to make Jet strain every last bit of air out of his board just to keep up. He could use the track rails for grinding, but then he'd lose some valuable speed.

And then a train showed up. Heading straight towards towards them no less.

Sonic tried to decelerate, his shoes screeching against metal and wood and releasing sparks all over. Jet did the complete opposite, reaching Sonic before the train and pulling both of them off the trajectory of the train. The extra weight made Jet notice the amount of pain he was currently feeling and so he slipped off his board.

Both of them tumbled down a hill and ended up in a grassy field. Sonic had managed to save the smoothies somehow and was about to attempt an escape before Jet pinned him down.

"What the **hell **is your problem, man?!" Jet was panting way harder than Sonic. He was holding Sonic's arms with his, and although he was nowhere near as strong as him, it seemed to be working.

Sonic didn't say anything. Jet could discern an apologetic smile on his face, dimly lit by the crescent moonlight. Jet had to personally thank the moon one of these days, for making Sonic look so handsome every single time.

"My everything hurts and it's your fault." Jet whined, though he wasn't actually _that _mad at Sonic.

"...Sounds like someone needs a kiss." Sonic smirked. "May I?"

"You're an asshole."

"You didn't say no."

"Don't make me regret saying yes."

"Alright hang on. Let go off me for a second."

Jet did so, and Sonic used the extra mobility to put the plastic cups at a safe distance from them. He then pulled Jet closer by tugging his hospital gown and pressed a kiss to the underside of his beak. Then another. And another. And another. Neither of them were keeping count anymore.

Jet was a mess. His feathers were all ruffled up and he got covered in grass and dirt from the fall. But so was Sonic. And they didn't care about how the other looked. They were content in feeling warm, breathing in perfect sync and caressing each other's roughed up frames.

After what felt like an eternity, Jet pulled away and leaned his back against the gentle slope of the hill behind them. He just remembered he was supposed to be mad at Sonic.

"Can we finally fucking talk though? Like seriously. You're the one starting to worry me."

Sonic soon followed suit, aiming his gaze at the starry sky above. "Sure, what do you wanna talk about handsome?"

"I'm so close to beating you up right now it's unreal."

Sonic let out a small chuckle. "Sorry, I couldn't help myself."

"_Sonic_." Jet trailed his bare hand against Sonic's arm until he found his, interlacing their fingers together. "I'm super mad at you but I'm not like, _mad _at you. Can you please tell me what's going on?"

Sonic kept his quiet for a few moments before his voice came out again. Shy, unsure. "... I'm sorry, Jet."

Jet simply shook his head and shrugged, prompting the hedgehog to continue.

"I just… I didn't want things to turn bad between you and Shadow. All that talk about war and revenge and… I just wanted to lighten up the mood. But in the end I just made it worse. I can't apologize to you enough, Jet."

Jet could hear the faintest sniffling sounds coming from Sonic, who was trying to act cool even in a moment like this. Jet sat upright and extended his arms towards Sonic as an offer. Sonic took it, wrapping himself around Jet's smaller frame and silently crying his eyes out while Jet rubbed a hand in circles on his back.

"I can't be mad at Shadow for something he had no control over. And I can't be mad at you for it either."

Jet gently pressed the tip of his beak against Sonic's cheek for a brief moment. It wasn't the same as a kiss, but it felt like one to them.

"Whether or not that made our friendship fall apart, that wouldn't be your fault either way."

"But it felt like it would." Sonic wiped the tears away from his eyes. "It… Always feels it's my fault when something bad happens to those around me. Like I wasn't able to help them. What kind of hero am I if I can't keep my friends from fighting? I know it's stupid, but—"

"Don't say that," Jet cut him off, "it's not stupid. You're not less of a hero when something you couldn't have possibly had any influence over goes wrong."

Sonic pulled back from the hug, hands resting on his lap while he fidgeted with his fingers. "... I think I need help, Jet."

"I think you have a lot to sort out, yeah. I can recommend you the same therapist I'm going to and you see if that's the right thing for you."

Jet leaned back and took a hold of Sonic's hand once again. "And… I'll also be here for you, of course. You helped me a lot and I want to be able to do the same for you."

"Thank you, Jet." Sonic pressed a small kiss to the side of his beak and leaned back as well.

Between the short grass and the partially hidden moon, there wasn't much to look at in terms of scenery. Both of them finally got around to drinking their smoothies. Jet's was banana flavored, the same kind Sonic was enjoying the day they bumped into each other. How cute.

"Hey Sonic?"

"Yeah Jet?"

"Are we on a date right now?"

Sonic paused. "Certainly not my ideal Saturday night date, but I guess it technically qualifies. Why?"

"Are we like… A _thing_?"

"Uh… I was going to ask you the same thing actually."

"Oh."

They fell into silence again. Jet took some time to go through his drink before he spoke up again.

"Hey Sonic?"

"Yeah Jet?"

"Do you want to be a thing?"

Sonic paused. "...I kinda want to be a thing. Do you want to be a thing?"

Jet hesitated. "There's so much I don't know about you. Like, I don't even know what movies you like. There's a version of Sonic in my head that's cool and fast and… _Sonic_, but I don't know if that's who you really are deep down, you know? I want to find that out."

"Oh…"

Jet rolled his eyes and removed the lid off his plastic cup, pouring the last of his smoothie on Sonic's head. "What the—"

"I didn't say no, dumbass. That just means I want to take things nice and slow for once."

"Aw yeah!" Jet couldn't help but snicker at Sonic's little pop off. "I have to warn you, though. You're gonna hate me once you find out what movies I'm into."

Jet rolled his eyes. He suddenly pulled Sonic closer, pressing the top of his beak against his lips.

"Nothing can make me fall out of love with you, idiot."

* * *

**Author's Note: And that's the end! I'm running a poll for a possible sequel, link to that can be found in the Ao3 version of this chapter. Link to that can be found in my profile.**


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